"HE  THREW   HIMSELF  DOWN    IN    THE   GRASS,    TINDER   THE   SHELTERING 

BRANCHES." 


FALCONBERG 


BY 


IIJALMAR  II.  BOYESEN 

AUTHOR  OF  "GOETHE  AND  SCHILLER,"  "GUNNAR,"  ETC. 


NEW    YORK 
CHARLES   SCRIBNER'S   SONS 

743  &  745  BROADWAY 
1879 


COPYRIGHT  BY 

CHARLES   SCRIBNER'S   SONS, 
1879. 


TROW'S 

PRINTING  AND  BOOKBINDING  Co., 

205-213  East  I2//4  St., 

NEW  YORK. 


PS  Hi? 

Fss 

1*71 

rv\  A/AJ 


CONTENTS. 


PAGH 

PRELUDE 1 

CHAPTER  I. 
Home-Life 7 

CHAPTER   II. 
A  Norse  Settlement 21 

CHAPTER  III. 
Norderad 33 

CHAPTER  IV. 
A  Musical  Battle 43 

CHAPTER  V. 
A  Scholar  in  the  Wilderness 59 

CHAPTER  VI. 
The  Raven's  Nest 69 

CHAPTER  VII. 
,"  The  Hardanger  Citizen  " 85 

CHAPTER  VIII. 
Ingrid 102 

CHAPTER  IX. 
Norse  Republicanism 116 


4130 


iv  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  X.  PAOB 

The  May  Festival 125 

CHAPTER  XI. 
A  Memorable  Meeting 138 

CHAPTER  XII. 
Tar  and  Feathers 157 

CHAPTER  XIII. 
Night  Watchers 171 

CHAPTER  XIV. 
Mrs.  Norderud's  Garden 183 

CHAPTER  XV. 
Magnus's  Posthumous  Career 200 

CHAPTER  XVI. 
"  Banner  "  versus  "  Citizen" 213 

CHAPTER  XVII. 
The  Pastor  has  an  Idea. 224 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 
An  Interview 236 

CHAPTER  XIX. 
44  The  Banner  "  makes  a  Sensation 245 

CHAPTER  XX. 
Helga  makes  a  Discovery 252 

CHAPTER  XXI. 
Vox  Populi 267 

CHAPTER  XXII. 
Conclusion.. .  283 


ILLUSTEATIONS. 

PAGE 

"HE   THREW    HIMSELF    DOWN    IN    THE   GRASS    UNDER   THE 
SHELTERING  BRANCHES  " Frontispiece. 

"•  THE  CHAIR  COULD  NOT  SUPPRESS  A  FROWN  AT  THIS  UNPAR 
LIAMENTARY  INTERRUPTION  " 90 

IN  THE  RAVINE 141 

"ElNAR  KNEW  IT  AT   THE   FIRST   GLANCE  ".  .  ,  .    229 


FALCONBERG. 


PRELUDE. 

WHEN,  in  the  year  1000,  Leif,  the  son  of  Red  Erik, 
launched  his  dragon-shaped  galley  upon  the  broad  Atlan 
tic  and  adverse  winds  and  currents  drove  him  toward  the 
shores  of  inhospitable  Yineland,  did  he  know,  that  stout 
hearted  Norseman,  that  he  was  preluding  a  far  resound 
ing  world-drama,  the  opening  act  of  which  was  five  cen 
turies  distant,  and  the  closing  scenes  of  which  will  extend, 
perchance,  to  the  very  boundary  of  time  and  eternity? 
It  may  be  a  daring  hypothesis,  but  as  I  read  in  the  Sagas 
the  brief  and  sad  history  of  that  ill-fated  colony,  I  seem 
to  discover  there,  as  it  were,  in  bolder  lines,  the  intellect 
ual  and  moral  prototypes  of  the  Norsemen  who  flock,  at 
this  day,  from  the  land  of  the  Vikings  to  the  ever  newly 
discovered  shores  of  the  fabulous  Yineland. 

As  I  stood  of  late  under  the  rotunda  of  Castle  Garden 
and  saw  the  blue-eyed  and  flaxen-haired  throng  pressing 
through  the  gate  which  was  to  admit  them  to  the  intenser 
miseries  and  joys  of  a  more  complex  civilization, — as  I 
endeavored  to  read  the  deep  heart-histories  of  those 
strongly  modeled  countenances,  whose  primitive  openness 
and  comparative  barbarism  rendered  them  the  more  easily 


legible,  my  thought  paced  swiftly  over  the  tombs  of  the 
dead  centuries,  and  Leif  Erikson  and  Thorfinn  Karlsefne 
with  their  storm-hardened  bands  emerged  from  the  cloud- 
land  of  the  past. 

How  manifold  are  the  motives  which  have  driven  these 
restless  wanderers  away  from  the  hearths  at  which  their 
race  had  struck  root,  and  from  the  homes  which  gave 
their  childhood  shelter !  Methinks  I  see  behind  the  sup 
pressed  ardor  of  yonder  youthful  face  the  eager  soul  of 
an  Erik,  aglow  with  visions  of  stirring  adventure  arid 
yearning  for  worlds  to  conquer.  He  too,  perchance,  left 
behind  him  in  the  old  home  a  father  whose  achievements 
had  kindled  the  slumbering  strength  of  his  spirit,  and 
whom  in  the  last  moment  an  ill  omen  convinced  that  his 
life-work  was  near  its  close.*  And  that  middle-aged 
man  at  his  side  with  the  ox-like  brow,  the  rudely  drawn 
lips,  the  stolid  immobility  of  vision — what  adverse  winds 
and  currents  sent  him  adrift  upon  a  world  the  charms  of 
which  he  has  not  the  eye  to  discover?  He,  perhaps,  like 
the  too  incurious  Bjarne,  will,  before  many  years,  return 
home  to  tell  the  narrow-brained  friends  of  the  govern 
ment  a  welcome  tale  of  bleak  shores,  sterile  soil  and  bar 
barous  customs,  and  his  report  will  be  published  far  and 
wide  over  the  land  with  a  loud  flourish  of  trumpets  to 
frighten  the  faint-hearted,  to  calm  the  restless,  and  quell 
the  hopes  of  the  hopeful. 

Down  in  the  throng  which  is  surging  at  my  feet,  now 
receding  and  now  again  pressing  on  with  the  sound  and 
motion  of  the  on-coming  flood-tide,  I  catch  a  glimpse  of  a 


*  Erik  the  Red  had  promised  his  son  to  accompany  him  on  his  voy 
age,  but  as  he  rode  to  the  ship  his  horse  stumbled,  and  as  he  fell  to  the 
earth  he  exclaimed  :  "  There  are  no  more  lands  for  me  to  discover  V" 


PRELUDE.  3 

bright  maidenly  face ;  it  is  a  face  of  the  purest  Northland 
mold,  in  which  native  strength  is  tempered  as  by  the  soft 
est  veil  of  womanly  grace  and  tenderness.  She,  like  the 
high-spirited  Freydis,  the  daughter  of  Red  Erik,  may  be 
destined  to  stand  foremost  in  the  daily  battle  of  pioneer 
life,  shaming  by  her  own  fervid  faith  some  timid  doubter, 
and  girding  with  an  adamantine  armor  of  courage  the 
heart  which,  though  perhaps  with  a  fainter  rhythm,  is  to 
beat  in  unison  with  her  own.  And  may  there  not  have 
been,  too,  among  Karlsefne's  followers  some  large-hearted 
idealist  whom  the  unrelieved  sameness  of  human  life  in 
the  old  land  and  the  inflexibility  of  its  time-hardened  in 
stitutions  had  restrained  and  saddened  in  his  endeavors  to 
fashion  his  destiny  into  conformity  with  some  fervid,  long- 
cherished  vision  of  the  soul  ?  If  so,  history  has  disdained 
to  name  him ;  for  the  Saga  is  blind  to  the  grandeur  of  a 
silent  life,  while  the  louder  deeds  of  the  sword  resound 
far  through  the  ages.  But  whether  his  prototype  exist  or 
not,  I  read  the  record  of  a  spirited  struggle  against  an 
iron-handed  fate  in  the  features  of  yonder  black-coated 
man  with  that  grave  serenity  of  bearing  and  with  that 
delicate  tissue  of  wrinkles  about  his  keen  blue  eyes  and 
upon  his  dome-shaped  forehead.  Sorrows  and  disappoint 
ments,  thronging  the  slow-paced  years,  have  day  by  day 
worn  thinner  the  cable  which  bound  him  to  the  land  of 
his  birth,  until  at  length  it  was  broken. 

The  noise  subsides ;  the  hum  of  a  thousand  commingled 
voices  which  rises  to  me  from  below  is  softened  ;  a  sal 
low-faced  little  man  springs  up  on  an  inverted  barrel  and 
reads  in  a  loud  grating  voice,  first  in  English,  then  in 
German,  French  and  Norwegian  (with  the  most  atrocious 
accent,  by  the  way)  a  brief  document,  giving  timely  coun 
sel  and  warning  to  the  immigrants.  In  the  chance  group 


4  FALCONBERO. 

ings  of  the  multitude  as  it  is  abruptly  arrested  in  its  on 
ward  course,  I  detect  many  a  fleeting  effect  of  color,  and 
in  the  momentary  juxtaposition  of  types  from  widely  re 
moved  climes,  I  catch  glimpses  of  historical  and  psycho 
logical  truths  which  ingenious  sociologists  have  failed  to 
fathom. 

A  Norseman  feels  a  just  pride  in  the  conviction  that 
his  nation,  although  its  historic  grandeur  has  long  been  a 
thing  of  the  past,  has  always  been  pre-eminent  for  those 
solid  family  and  home  virtues  which  tradition  has  made  a 
kind  of  prerogative  of  the  Germanic  races.  His  life, 
hedged  in  on  all  sides  by  a  bulwark  of  strong  ancestral 
beliefs  and  well-established  customs  and  prejudices,  offers 
no  loop-hole  for  the  larger  vices  to  enter ;  and  the  smaller 
ones,  which  are  recognized  powers  under  all  conditions  of 
society,  serve  but  to  add  a  stronger  spice  to  social  inter 
course  and  are  apparently  as  essential  to  human  progress 
and  happiness  as  virtue  itself.  In  Norway,  at  least,  the 
social  ideal  is  respectability,  which  means  the  aggregate 
unit  of  all  the  national  foibles,  strongly  seasoned  by  a 
kind  of  aggressive  ignorance  of  the  world  at  large  and  a 
due  admixture  of  declamatory,  provincial  patriotism.  A 
society  composed  of  elements  like  these  has  a  long  mem 
ory  for  past  offenses ;  it  is  quick  to  condemn,  slow  to  in 
vestigate,  and  incapable  of  forgiving.  And  what  is  so 
ciety  but  an  enlargement  of  the  individual  type  ?  I  have 
often  wondered  whether  it  is  the  duty  of  blood  vengeance, 
as  imposed  by  the  Asa  faith, — the  sacred  obligation  to 
claim  retribution  for  past  insults, — which  has  been  un 
consciously  transmitted  through  the  long  centuries  from 
father  to  son  and  has  left  its  indelible  traces  in  the  Norse 
man's  laws  as  in  his  character. 

Political  pessimists  have,  with  some  show  of  plausibility, 


PRELUDE.  5 

defined  the  difference  between  a  monarchy  and  a  republic, 
as  the  difference  between  the  tyranny  of  one  master  and 
the  tyranny  of  many.  Norway,  to  be  sure,  has  a  monarch, 
who  is,  however,  only  in  the  Greek  sense  of  the  word,  a 
tymnnoS)  while  public  opinion,  ever  blindly  and  clamor 
ously  active,  exalts  mediocrity  and  banishes  genius,  be 
cause  the  former  is  conventionally  attired  and  blandly 
conservative,  while  the  latter  is  too  apt  to  appear  in  some 
outlandish  garb,  intellectually  as  well  as  physically,  and  as 
experience  shows,  is  not  proof  against  novel  heresies  which 
may  threaten  to  disturb  the  comfortable  indolence  of 
church  and  state. 

These  and  similar  reflections  were  suggested  to  me  by 
the  sight  of  a  man  who  was  sitting  on  the  floor,  not  many 
steps  removed  from  me,  resting  his  chin  in  his  palm  and 
sending  a  blank  stare  out  into  the  empty  space.  Judging 
by  his  looks,  he  could  hardly  be  past  thirty.  His  face  was 
strikingly  handsome,  and  of  so  pure  a  Norse  type  that  it 
affected  me  like  a  sudden  rush  of  warm  air  laden  with  the 
fragrance  of  Norse  pines  and  wild  flowers.  The  North 
land  memories  were  roused  within  me,  and  I  became  pos 
sessed  with  an  ardent  desire  to  read  for  once  unerringly 
the  deep  soul-mysteries  which  had  written  their  slow  but 
ineffaceable  record  upon  the  sensitive  surface  of  this  coun 
tenance.  These  delicate  features,  once  so  quickly  re 
sponsive  to  each  passing  mood  from  within,  so  readily 
moved  into  sympathetic  concord  with  men  and  things,  are, 
as  it  were,  glazed  over  with  some  stony  substance,  hinder 
ing  that  finely  graduated  play  of  expression  of  which  a 
countenance  like  this  must  be  capable.  Now  some  pain 
ful  remembrance  seems  to  be  struggling  to  the  surface  ; 
better,  at  ail  events,  than  that  dead  stupor,  which  paralyzes 
the  energies  of  the  mind,  and,  offering  no  resistance  to  the 


6  FALCONBERO. 

wildest  resolves,  is  even  more  dangerous  than  active  de 
spair. 

That  there  was  the  shadow  of  a  tragedy  upon  this  life, 
it  required  no  keenness  of  vision  to  discover,  and  as  one, 
seeing  the  shadow  of  a  cloud  upon  some  fair  landscape, 
raises  his  eyes  to  behold  the  cloud  itself,  so  I  turned  from 
my  sad-faced  traveler,  and,  with  the  divine  prerogative  of 
the  novelist,  lifting  the  veil  which  hid  his  past,  traced  the 
slow  intertwining  of  small  events,  of  which  he  was  the 
unconscious  and  helpless  result. 

1  have  singled  out  this  one  from  the  countless  tragedies 
which  daily  enter  through  the  gate  of  Castle  Garden,  like 
little  sub-intrigues  into  the  grand  drama  of  our  national 
life,  itot  because  it  is  any  more  frequent  than  a  hundred 
others,  but  because  it  presents  a  fresh  field  of  observation, 
as  far  as  I  know,  as  yet  untrodden  by  poet  or  novelist. 


CHAPTER  I. 

HOME -LIFE. 

THE  Eight  Reverend  Bishop  Falconberg  was  a  man  of 
a  truly  apostolic  appearance,  a  fact  which,  as  his  enemies 
asserted,  constituted  his  sole  claim  to  the  elevated  position 
he  at  present  occupied.  He  possessed,  moreover,  in  an 
eminent  degree,  that  peculiarly  clerical  accomplishment 
of  uttering  pious  platitudes  with  a  pompousness  of  voice 
and  manner  which,  with  an  uncritical  congregation,  readily 
passed  for  inspiration. 

The  late  King  Bernadotte  of  blessed  memory,  who  for 
tunately  understood  only  a  few  words  of  Norwegian,  but 
had  a  Frenchman's  liking  for  handsome  men,  had  made 
him  knight  and  afterward  commander  of  several  orders, 
and  the  bishop  had,  during  that  monarch's  reign,  grown 
fat  and  prosperous  in  the  perpetual  sunshine  of  royal 
favor.  In  return,  he  had  worshiped  and  served  his  bene 
factor  with  an  unquestioning  devotion  which  loyal  citizens 
called  touching.  It  was  whispered,  however,  among  dema 
gogues  and  political  malcontents,  that  the  high-spirited  king 
at  times  demanded  a  slight  sacrifice  of  conscience  from 
his  most  devoted  servants,  and  that  the  bishop  had  occasion 
ally  been  obliged  to  resort  to  his  subtlest  logic  in  order  to 
reconcile  his  clerical  office  with  that  of  a  royal  favorite. 
Like  all  men  whose  rapid  rise  is  without  any  visible  foun 
dation  of  merit,  Mr.  Falconberg  had  his  enviers,  who  were 


8  FALCONBERO. 

not  always  scrupulous  in  the  choice  of  the  epithets  which 
they  attached  to  his  reverend  name. 

During  the  reign  of  King  Oskar,  Mr.  Faleonberg's 
greatness  had  already  become  a  well-established  official 
fact,  and  the  voices  of  opposition  were  silenced.  When 
the  bishop  thundered  from  the  pulpit  against  Catholic 
heresies,  which  had  long  been  dead,  and  the  great  Anti 
christ,  who  resided  at  a  safe  distance  in  Home,  people 
flocked  to  hear  him,  and  marveled  at  his  pious  fearlessness 
and  the  lofty  nights  of  his  rhetoric.  The  official  press 
then  began  to  make  wondrous  discoveries  concerning  the 
Falconbergs  of  by -gone  centuries,  and  it  was  proved  be 
yond  a  doubt,  that  the  bishop  was  not  a  homo  novuxy  but 
had  come  legitimately  to  his  present  eminence  by  the  long 
transmission  of  ancestral  genius.  Some  obscure  chronicle 
revealed  the  fact  that  the  family  had  emigrated  from 
Denmark  to  Norway  in  the  fifteenth  century,  which  would 
hardly  have  been  deemed  worthy  of  record  if  the  Fa  Icon  - 
bergs  had  not,  even  previous  to  that  time,  been  foremost 
among  the  historic  families  of  the  united  kingdoms. 
Again,  it  was  proved  that  a  certain  Half  dan  Falcouberg 
had  been  among  the  first  to  abjure  Catholicism  and  accept 
the  Evangelical  faith  at  the  command  of  the  court,  and 
that  a  later  descendant  who,  by  a  wealthy  marriage  and 
skillful  management  (which  is  the  polite  phrase  for  extor 
tion),  had  accumulated  a  considerable  fortune,  had  ad 
vanced  a  loan  of  twenty  thousand  crowns  in  silver  to  King 
Christian  the  Fourth,  who,  as  is  well  known,  suffered  from 
a  chronic  want  of  coin. 

The  other  Falconbergs  of  the  present  century  (for  his 
Reverence  was  by  no  means  the  sole  heir  to  his  illustrious 
name)  were  men  whose  chief  merit  consisted  in  their  be 
ing  relatives  to  one  of  the  first  prelates  of  the  kingdom, — - 


HOME-LIFE. 

a  merit  which  that  prelate  was  ever  most  willing  to  recog 
nize.  They  were  men  whose  neutrality  of  character,  easy 
manners  and  unimpeachable  loyalty  made  them  available 
for  almost  any  lucrative  position  which  chance  or  royal 
favor  might  provide ;  and  the  bishop  who  vaguely  felt 
that  he  owed  them  compensation  for  having  received 
more  than  his  due  share  of  the  family  fund  of  genius, 
had  at  last  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  them  all  comfortably 
nestled  as  eminent  office-holders  under  the  sheltering 
wings  of  the  government.  I  say  all,  but  there  was  one 
exception.  The  bishop's  youngest  brother,  Marcus  Fal- 
conberg,  who  had  inherited  none  of  the  family  virtues 
except  its  tendency  to  corpulence,  had  been  guilty  of  that 
most  grievous  of  all  offenses,  a  misalliance,  and  had  been 
compelled  to  hide  his  shame  in  some  obscure  settlement 
on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic.  He  had,  with  some 
difficulty  taken  the  degree  of  candidatus  theologiae  be 
fore  leaving  Norway,  and  was  now  the  pastor  of  a  Nor 
wegian  congregation  in  one  of  the  Western  states. 

The  Right  Reverend  Bishop — to  complete  his  portrait 
— was  a  man  of  a  very  convivial  nature,  bland,  polished 
in  his  manners,  condescending  and  yet  dignified,  a  little 
loud  of  speech  perhaps,  if  contradicted,  and  with  that 
self-confidence  and  easy  assumption  of  superiority  which 
are  so  readily  pardoned  in  a  man  whom  chance  and  for 
tune  have  favored.  This  was  at  all  events  the  official  side 
of  his  character  which  the  world  knew  and  admired.  In 
the  bosom  of  his  family  he  was,  perhaps,  less  amiable, 
somewhat  exacting  at  times,  if  not  tyrannical,  absolute  in 
his  judgments,  intolerant  of  dissent,  impatient  of  faults  in 
others,  and  indulgent  toward  himself.  He  ruled  his 
household  with  an  iron  hand,  extending  his  jealous  super 
vision  even  to  the  most  trivial  details  of  expenditure  ;  and 
1* 


10  FALCONBERO. 

that  external  garb  of  piety  which  his  position  compelled 
him  to  wear  covered  a  multitude  of  petty  foibles,  greatly 
at  variance  with  that  large-lined  statuesque  grandeur 
which  he  was  wont  to  display,  when,  arrayed  in  his  offi 
cial  pomp,  he  thundered  forth  his  philippics  against  hu 
man  vice  and  folly.  In  spite  of  all  this,  I  must  do  the 
bishop  the  justice  to  add  that  he  was  not  a  hypocrite  ;  he 
had  himself  not  the  faintest  suspicion  that  he  was  insin 
cere  or  even  inconsistent.  If  he  reasoned  at  all  concern 
ing  his  character  and  discovered  some  traces  of  the  old 
Adam  in  it,  he  easily  consoled  himself  with  the  reflection 
that  even  St.  Paul,  not  to  speak  of  Dr.  Luther,  had  made 
similar  discoveries,  and  both  were  nevertheless,  by  all  pos 
terity,  accounted  great  and  holy  men.  The  world,  too, 
and  the  king  had  indorsed  him,  and  he  was  satisfied  to 
abide  by  their  judgment.  If  men's  lives  had  to  be  stain 
less,  what  then  was  the  good  of  the  redemption  ? 

These,  however,  were  not  the  doctrines  which  Mr.  Fal- 
conberg  preached  to  his  children  and  to  humanity  at  large. 
And  still,  is  it  to  be  wondered  at,  that  his  oldest  son,  Einar 
Finnson  Falcon  berg,  as  he  grew  up  to  youth  and  man 
hood,  soon  became  aware  of  the  discrepancy  between  his 
father's  theology  and  his  private  practices,  and  began  to 
draw  his  inferences  concerning  the  validity  of  this  theol 
ogy  accordingly?  During  his  early  years  he  had  suffered 
keenly  from  his  parent's  tyrannical  supervision  and  exces 
sive  zeal  for  his  welfare  and  improvement.  The  bishop, 
probably  with  the  best  intention  in  the  world,  poured  into 
his  mind  an  unceasing  stream  of  the  most  miscellaneous 
learning,  using  him,  whether  consciously  or  not,  as  a 
touchstone  whereby  to  test  the  virtue  of  every  new  educa 
tional  system  that  happened  to  come  to  his  notice.  lie 
started  with  the  proposition  that  human  nature  was  essen- 


HOME- LIFE.  11 

tiallj  a  compound  of  the  vilest  tilings,  which  must  at  all 
risks  be  eradicated,  so  as  to  leave  that  perfect  blank  upon 
which  an  unerring  hand  might  inscribe  the  precepts  of 
piety,  wisdom  and  virtue.  And,  agreeably  to  this  theory, 
he  spent  hours  daily  in  tormenting  the  boy,  resisting  his 
most  innocent  wishes  for  the  mere  purpose  of  "  breaking 
his  will."  Fortunately,  he  saw  whither  this  system  was 
tending  before  he  had  occasion  to  test  its  utmost  effects, 
and  dreading  to  become  an  object  of  his  son's  hatred,  he 
suddenly  wheeled  round,  and  accepted  the  philosophy  of 
some  German  metaphysician  who  after  the  manner  of 
Rousseau  taught  that  human  nature  was  essentially  good, 
and  that  evil  found  its  way  into  the  infantine  mind  only 
through  the  force  of  example.  This  theory,  of  course, 
required  a  total  isolation  from  all  vicious  influences,  and 
might  have  proved  more  satisfactory  in  its  results,  if  the 
boy's  mother  had  not  foolishly  interfered  and  by  her  dis 
trust,  her  disobedience  and  her  tearful  appeals  brought 
the  whole  beautiful  system  into  confusion.  She,  like  the 
irrational  creature  that  she  was,  felt  her  heart  swelling 
with  pity  toward  this  over-educated  little  fragment  of 
humanity,  for  whose  existence  she  held  herself  in  part  re 
sponsible,  and  it  was  owing  to  her  perseverance  and  meek, 
mild-mannered  obstinacy  that  the  father,  at  last,  when 
Einar  was  in  his  fifteenth  year,  threw  all  his  systems  over 
board  and  determined  that  henceforth  he  would  refrain 
from  all  forcible  interference  and  be  content  to  keep  a 
watchful  eye  over  the  son's  spiritual  and  intellectual  prog 
ress.  It  was  very  hard,  however,  to  carry  this  laudable 
resolution  into  effect ;  whatever  ardor  there  may  yet  have 
been  in  the  bishop's  nature,  which  had  not  become  con 
gealed  in  the  chilly  heights  of  his  official  eminence,  had 
flowed  out  freely  toward  this  eldest  born  son  ;  all  the  long- 


12  FALGONBERO. 

gathering  currents  of  his  being,  the  intricate  motives  of 
selfishness  and  generosity,  which  went  to  make  up  his 
complex  existence,  had  all  served  to  nourish  one  strong 
but  silent  conviction,  as  the  invisibly  intertwining  veins 
of  water  slowly  gather  in  the  breast  of  the  earth  into  a 
warm  and  silent  pool.  He  firmly  believed  that  this 
bright-eyed  and  quick-witted  boy,  upon  whose  forehead 
Nature  seemed  to  have  put  its  stamp  of  nobility  from  the 
very  cradle,  had  received  in  even  a  fuller  measure  than 
himself  that  genius  which  the  family  had  guarded  as  its 
peculiar  treasure,  and  that  he  was  destined  to  occupy  the 
same  position  in  the  next  generation  as  his  father  had  in 
this,  looming  up  easily,  by  virtue  of  intellectual  largeness, 
above  the  herd  of  men.  Thus  the  bishop's  name  would 
be  secured  an  honorable  place  among  the  historical  digni 
taries  of  the  land,  in  times  to  come. 

When  Einar  Falconberg  at  the  age  of  eighteen  entered 
the  University,  he  was  by  common  consent  declared  to  be 
the  handsomest  man  of  his  year.  A  few  years  of  com 
parative  freedom  had  enabled  him  to  recover  from  the 
physical  effects  of  his  educational  sufferings,  which  indeed 
seemed  to  have  left  no  trace  behind  them,  except  an  un 
conquerable  antipathy  to  church-going.  But  this  peculi 
arity  hardly  distinguished  him  from  hundreds  of  his  fel 
low-students,  who  understood  by  the  church  but  the  aggre 
gate  number  of  stone  and  wooden  edifices  in  which  men 
consented  to  be  bored  once  a  week  for  the  good  of  their 
souls,  and  to  whom  religion  was  a  mysterious  something, 
outside  and  beyond  their  own  sphere,  mercifully  provided 
by  the  Creator  for  subtle-minded  metaphysicians  (whose 
analytical  destructiveness  might  otherwise  prove  danger 
ous  to  society)  to  test  their  skill  upon,  and  for  quarrelsome 
theologians  to  wrangle  over. 


HOME-LIFE.  13 

Einar's  nature  was  of  that  trustful,  generous  and  open- 
hearted  kind  which  readily  invites  to  familiarity.  The 
amiable  abandon  of  his  manners,  tempered  by  innate  good 
breeding,  was  as  far  removed  from  rudeness  and  aggres 
sive  forwardness  as  it  was  from  shrinking  humility  or 
diffidence.  To  a  handsome  and  talented  young  man,  born 
in  the  very  topmost  stratum  of  society,  the  world  puts  on 
its  gayest  and  most  radiant  aspect,  and  he  sees  no  reason 
why  he  should  not  open  his  hand  to  receive  its  bounty  and 
treat  it  with  a  similar  liberality  in  return.  Everybody 
liked  Einar,  and  he  was  himself  incapable  of  harboring 
any  lasting  resentment  against  anybody.  He  had  his 
preferences,  of  course,  and  was  not  without  a  certain  aris 
tocratic  fastidiousness  in  the  choice  of  his  more  intimate 
friends ;  but  if  chance  threw  him  into  contact  with  any 
one  whose  manner  jarred  upon  his  nerves,  he  was  not  the 
man  to  yield  to  a  hasty  impression,  but  rather  laughed  in 
wardly  at  his  genteel  prejudices  and  let  his  abundant  good 
humor  flow  without  stint  toward  all.  Of  course  people 
told  him  almost  daily  both  directly  and  by  implication 
that  he  was  handsome,  and  he  could  hardly  himself  see 
the  youthful  brightness  and  faultless  modeling  of  his  fea 
tures  reflected  in  the  mirror,  without  silently  owning  that 
he  found  no  ground  for  dissent.  There  was,  however, 
nothing  especially  striking  in  these  features,  unless  indeed 
their  soft  radiance,  harmony  of  form  and  absolutely  per 
fect  proportions  were  rare  enough  to  challenge  attention. 
You  saw  at  once  that  it  was  a  countenance  capable  of  ex 
pressing  the  most  delicate  shades  of  emotion, — as  change 
ful  and  sensitive  as  a  still  water-surface,  which  shivers 
into  ripples  at  the  touch  of  the  least  perceptible  air-cur 
rent.  It  is  only  in  the  north,  I  think,  where  all  extremes 
of  creation  meet,  that  nature  fashions  these  wondrously 


1 4:  PAL  CONBERG. 

delicate  organisms,  these  alpine  flowers  among  men,  in 
whose  being  the  life  of  a  brief  but  passionate  summer 
ebbs  and  flows  with  fitful  pulsations.  It  was  this  flower- 
like  stainlessness,  this  pure  northern  grace  and  innate 
nobility  which  found  their  expression  in  the  soft  curves 
of  Einar's  lips,  in  the  frank  appeal  of  his  blue  eyes  and 
in  the  fearless  simplicity  of  his  whole  bearing.  It  was  not 
the  fearlessness  bred  by  ardent  faith  or  strength  of  pur 
pose,  but  rather  by  absence  of  suspicion  and  unconscious 
ness  of  wrong, — a  mere  child-like  acceptance  of  life  as  it 
was, — an  unquestioning  confidence  in  oneself  and  in  every 
body  who  comes  within  the  sphere  of  one's  being.  A 
man  of  such  a  temper  is  equally  irresistible  to  men  and 
women  ;  Nature  has  singled  him  out  for  her  favorite  from 
the  very  cradle,  and  the  world  is  apt  to  accept  his  own  es 
timate  of  himself,  and  to  treat  him  with  the  indulgence 

'  & 

which  he  unconsciously  claims  and  practices  toward  him 
self  and  others. 

It  was  very  natural  that  Bishop  Falconberg  should  feel 
an  agreeable  stirring  of  joy  and  pride  whenever  his  eyes 
dwelt  upon  this  promising  son.  After  his  admission  to 
the  University,  he  suddenly  changed  his  conduct  toward 
him,  allowing  him  the  most  unlimited  freedom,  courting 
him  by  incessant  praise  and  only  grumbling  occasionally 
at  his  expensive  habits  whenever  an  exorbitant  demand 
was  made  on  his  treasury.  He  listened  with  untiring  in 
terest  to  Einar's  accounts  of  his  experiences  in  that  gay 
young  student- world  which  was  daily  unfolding  its  varied 
pleasures  to  his  eager  eye.  The  bishop  had  himself  been 
a  student  and  had  himself  had  similar  experiences.  Hith 
erto  he  and  his  son,  although  living  under  the  same  roof, 
had  really  been  as  remote  from  each  other  as  wandering 
stars,  whose  spheres  once  in  a  thousand  years  graze  or 


HOME-LIFE.  15 

mutually  intersect  each  other.  Now  they  were  drawn 
together  for  the  first  time  by  a  real  community  of  feeling, 
and  the  first  thrill  of  delight  at  the  touch  of  two  souls 
which,  with  all  their  differences,  could  not  disown  a  mutual 
sense  of  kinship,  was  even  strong  enough  to  banish,  for  the 
time,  the  dreary  memories  of  the  past.  For  that  tyranni 
cal  father  is  probably  a  rare  phenomenon  who  would  not 
readily  exchange  the  uneasy  isolation  of  guardianship  for 
the  closer  human  fellowship  which  only  a  tacit  admission 
of  equality  and  a  less  uncritical  devotion  can  foster. 

Thus,  at  all  events,  ran  Mr.  Falconberg's  reflections,  as 
his  son  stood  before  him  in  the  dawn  of  his  young  manhood, 
— a  life  detached  from  his  own,  and  still,  by  strong,  hidden 
ties  mysteriously  united  to  it.  They  were  very  admirable 
reflections,  as  every  one  will  admit,  and  during  the  first 
years  of  Einar's  college  life  they  bade  fair  to  establish 
the  most  delightful  relation  between  him  and  his  father. 
But  when  the  young  man  had  finished  his  preliminary 
course  and  had  sustained  with  honor  his  examen  philos- 
ophicum,  the  bishop's  imperious  temper  suddenly  burst 
out  in  a  tempest  of  wrath  which  swept  the  sunny  reminis 
cences  of  their  recent  summer  life  into  a  hopeless  distance. 
It  had  always  been  a  tacit  understanding  between  them, 
the  father  claimed,  that  Einar  should  study  theology  and 
devote  himself  to  the  church.  It  was  with  this  in  view 
that  Mr.  Falconberg  had  wasted  his  hard-earned  money  on 
him,  and,  by  the  heavens,  whether  he  would  or  no,  he 
should  obey.  Einar,  on  the  contrary,  asserted  that  he  had 
never  in  his  life,  tacitly  or  openly,  cherished  any  such  in 
tentions,  and  he  even  freely  confessed  the  deeply  rooted 
repugnance  he  felt  against  the  profession  in  which  his 
father  had  reaped  his  fame  and  his  honors.  This  was,  of 
course,  more  than  the  old  man  could  be  expected  to  toler- 


16  FALCONBERG. 

ate;  he  threatened  to  disinherit  his  son,  to  disown  him,  to 
deprive  him  of  his  name,  and  God  knows  what  not,  pro 
vided  he  did  not  retract  his  hasty  words  and  uncondition 
ally  surrender.  The  son,  however,  was  nothing  daunted 
by  threats,  and  in  the  end  the  bishop  had  to  accept  a  com 
promise,  proposed  by  himself,  according  to  which  Einar 
should  take  up  the  study  of  theology,  but  postpone  his  de 
cision  as  to  choice  of  profession  until  a  matnrer  knowledge 
should  have  dispelled  his  foolish  prejudice.  Thus  a  re 
spite  was  gained,  and  seeming  peace  was  established  ; 
but,  like  a  storm  whose  unspent  energy  still  lingers,  with 
threatening  gloom  and  sullen  mutterings,  at  the  hori 
zon's  rim,  the  father's  dissatisfaction  continued  to  vent 
itself  in  caustic  remarks  and  ill-natured  criticisms,  which 
were  the  more  exasperating  because  they  were  never 
sufficiently  definite  to  be  met  by  open  contradiction. 
Their  sunny  companionship  in  the  memories  of  a  com 
mon  youth  was  a  thing  of  the  past,  and  was  never  to  be 
restored. 

It  was  not  strange  that  these  altered  conditions  should 
act  unfavorably  upon  a  creature  so  seemingly  made  for 
sunshine  and  so  sensitive  to  external  influences  as  Einar 
Falconberg.  lie  could  no  longer  work  with  that  breezy 
stimulation  of  purpose  which  lies  in  having  a  definite  end 
for  one's  exertions.  It  is  true  he  had  never  been  inclined 
to  severe  application,  but  he  had  had  a  vague  sense  of 
the  responsibility  attaching  to  his  position  as  a  member 
of  a  great  family,  and  had  not  therefore  absolutely 
shunned  scholarly  toil.  He  was  abundantly  supplied 
with  those  intellectual  antennae  which  absorb  culture  and 
even  the  solider  substance  of  learning  by  a  mere  fleet 
ing  contact ;  and  somehow  he  had  always  managed  to  do 
himself  credit  whenever  the  time  came  to  test  his  attain- 


HOME-LIFE.  17 

merits.  But  now  his  evil  destiny  had  compelled  him  to 
occupy  himself  with  the  very  thing  for  which  he  had 
from  his  earliest  years  conceived  a  strong  repugnance ; 
and  Einar  shrank  from  anything  unpleasant,  as  the  tongue 
or  any  other  sensitive  object  would  shrink  from  contact 
with  cold  iron.  He  had  always  abhorred  anything  like 
dissimulation,  and  had  never  thought  of  claiming  any 
credit  for  his  own  uncompromising  honesty ;  he  would 
have  liked  to  believe  that  all  the  world  was  sincere,  be 
cause  sincerity  was  the  very  essence  of  his  own  character  ; 
and  in  spite  of  frequent  paternal  admonitions  he  could 
not  bring  himself  to  feign  an  interest  which  he  did  not 
feel  in  the  long-winded  recitals  o*f  theological  feuds  and 
the  half-rationalistic,  half-pietistic  exegesis  of  doctrine 
which  dry,  unimaginative  professors — mere  musty,  shriv- 
elled-up  parchments  of  humanity — daily  inflicted  upon 
his  unwilling  ears.  The  consequence  was  that  his  attend 
ance  upon  lectures  became  less  frequent  with  every  pass 
ing  month,  and  in  order  to  dispel  the  importunate  reflec 
tions  regarding  his  future  which  his  equivocal  position 
urged  upon  him,  he  threw  himself  passionately  into  the 
whirl  of  social  life,  laughed  with  the  gay,  looked  solemn 
and  apprehensive  among  grave-minded  philistines,  cour 
teous  and  a  little  flippant  among  the  ladies,  and  felt  a 
transient  flush  of  joy  at  the  easy  triumph  of  his  brilliancy 
and  his  personal  attractions.  But  his  mind  was  fast  losing 
that  serene  equipoise,  that  fresh  spontaneity  of  feeling 
which  had  made  him  appear  among  the  throngs  of  youth 
like  a  newly-revealed  beautiful  being.  It  is  inherent  in 
such  a  temperament  that  it  readily  takes  the  color  of  its 
surroundings,  and  when  this  susceptibility  to  impressions 
becomes  conscious,  it  is  but  one  step  removed  from  insin 
cerity.  Einar  soon  felt  this,  but  with  his  clerical  future 


18  FALCOXBERO. 

staring  him  in  the  face,  did  not  care  sufficiently  for  his 
o\vn  fate  to  mind  whither  he  was  drifting. 

The  years  passed  swiftly,  and  the  unrecorded  change?, 
wrought  by  the  slow  hand  of  time,  became  at  last  percep 
tible  enough  to  give  even  a  less  sensitive  mind  than  his 
cause  for  alarm.  His  cheap  social  triumphs  began  to 
pall  upon  his  sense,  and  his  mind  was  constantly  agitated 
by  restless  moods  and  an  ever-growing  dissatisfaction  with 
the  world  and  his  own  attitude  toward  it.  An  all-con 
quering  bitterness  rose  in  some  hitherto  unconscious  sub 
stratum  of  his  soul ;  no  transient  pleasure  could  counter 
act  it,  and  no  self-soothing  sophism  banish  it.  His  expen 
ditures  had  long  been  "largely  in  excess  of  his  monthly 
allowance,  and,  as  he  had  early  made  the  discovery  that 
his  name  was  realizable  in  coin,  he  had  had  no  scruples 
in  permitting  his  debts  to  grow  beyond  hope  of  immediate 
redemption.  He  had  hitherto  succeeded  in  keeping  his 
creditors  at  bay  by  liberal  promises,  but  now  they  were 
becoming  intolerably  importunate,  and  Einar,  seeing  no 
escape  from  his  dismal  dilemma,  felt  his  own  spirits  fall 
ing  in  proportion  as  the  pressure  of  external  annoyances 
increased.  He  knew  that  it  would  be  impossible  to  go  on 
concealing  from  his  father  what  perhaps  he  had  a  right 
to  know,  but  he  had  put  off  the  evil  day  of  revelation  in 
the  vague  hope  that  some  hitherto  unthought-of  remedy 
might  unexpectedly  present  itself.  His  last  experience 
of  the  old  man's  temper  had  left  a  strong  aftertaste  of 
bitterness,  and  it  was  hardly  strange  that  he  should  exer 
cise  his  ingenuity  to  the  utmost  to  avoid  a  second  en 
counter. 

It  was  in  the  twilight  hours  one  evening  in  the  early 
spring  that  Einar  sat  in  his  room,  deeply  plunged  in  one 
of  those  moods — so  common  to  sanguine  men — of  impa- 


HOME- LIFE.  19 

tient  regret,  interrupted  now  and  then  by  fervid  resolu 
tions  to  abandon  his  old  folly,  provided  his  good  fortune 
would  only  help  him  out  of  his  present  quandary.  The 
bishop  had  just  started  on  his  annual  journey  of  supervi 
sion  through  the  diocese,  and  the  temporary  suspension  of 
the  fear  which  had  for  months  past  been  haunting  the 
son's  mind,  afforded  his  thoughts  the  needed  leisure  to 

y  o 

concentrate  all  their  energy  upon  the  solution  of  the  prob 
lem  which  life  persisted  in  thrusting  into  his  face.  Then 
there  was  a  sharp  knock  at  the  door,  and  Halfdan  Bryn,  a 
young  man  celebrated  in  the  student  world  for  his  good 
voice  and  his  loose  habits,  entered  breathlessly  and  threw 
himself,  panting,  into  an  easy-chair.  He  informed  Einar, 
in  a  narrative  broken  by  frequent  gasps  and  impressive 
imprecations,  that  an  old  Jewish  usurer  of  ill  repute  in 
the  city  had  bought  up  all  claims  against  Falconberg  at  a 
large  discount,  and  meant  to  have  him  arrested,  in  case  he 
could  not  satisfy  him  by  immediate  payment. 

It  is  needless  to  dwell  on  details.  The  next  day  the 
usurer  presented  his  claim  and  repeated  the  threat  of  im 
prisonment  ;  for  imprisonment  for  debt,  although  deemed 
highly  disgraceful,  was  then  no  uncommon  thing  in  Xor- 
way.  Einar  succeeded  in  procuring  a  day's  respite,  dur 
ing  which  he  vainly  sought  aid  among  his  own  and  his 
father's  friends.  The  debt  amounted  to  about  six  hun 
dred  dollars, — a  very  paltry  sum,  to  be  sure,  but  still  in 
Norway,  large  enough  to  cause  a  man  considerable  dis 
comfiture.  Agitated  beyond  control  by  visions  of  coming 
ruin,  he  was  fast  drifting  into  that  reckless,  irresponsible 
state,  in  which  each  fresh  shock  of  pain  only  renders  the 
moral  sense  more  torpid,  and  at  last  paralyzes  it.  There 
was  no  time  for  deliberation,  and  in  the  last  moment  he 
caught  at  the  only  plank  of  safety  which  his  dazed  eye 


20  FALCONBERG. 

could  discern.  lie  wrote  his  father's  name  to  a  check  for 
the  required  amount,  had  it  presented  at  the  bank  and  dis 
charged  his  debt.  He  was  convinced  that  the  public  scan 
dal  of  imprisonment  would  make  a  final  rupture  inevita 
ble,  while,  if,  on  the  bishop's  return,  he  confessed  the 
whole  affair  to  him,  there  was  every  reason  to  believe  that 
he  would,  in  the  end,  condone  the  offense,  and  himself 
make  the  first  approach  to  a  reconciliation.  But  in  an 
evil  hour  the  bishop  was  induced  to  show  an  unwonted 
liberality  toward  an  indigent  relative  whom  he  had  vis 
ited,  and  telegraphed  to  his  bank  for  money.  The  bank 
replied  that  his  account  was  already  overdrawn,  where 
upon  the  prelate,  much  in  wrath,  demanded,  also  by  tele 
graph,  that  no  effort  should  be  spared  to  apprehend  the 
criminal  who  had  dared  to  forge  his  name. 

Einar  learned  that  the  police  were  at  his  heels  just  in 
time  to  take  a  hurried  farewell  of  his  mother,  who  wept 
over  him,  and  gave  him  a  letter  to  his  American  uncle, 
but  could  do  nothing  to  hinder  his  flight.  In  the  disguise 
of  a  peasant,  he  boarded  the  English  steamer,  which  de 
parted  that  very  evening  for  Hull ;  and  two  weeks  later 
he  found  himself  plunged  headlong  into  a  new  and  be- 
wilderingly  strange  world,  with  all  the  fair  hopes  of  his 
life  blotted  out  behind  him,  and  only  the  regret,  the  bit 
terness,  and  the  heart-ache  surviving. 


CHAPTER  II. 

A   NORSE   SETTLEMENT. 

IT  was  more  than  a  month  after  the  day  when  I  saw 
Einar  Falconberg  sitting  in  that  hopeless  attitude  of  dull 
benumbed  grief  under  the  rotunda  of  Castle  Garden.  He 
had  spent  the  intervening  time  in  aimless  roamings  from 
city  to  city  striving  vainly  to  find  a  clew  that  might  guide 
him  through  this  tangled  labyrinth  of  life.  It  was  a  sun 
less  path  he  had  trodden  and  nocturnal  fancies  thronged 
his  mind.  Had  then  this  hasty  deed,  wrenched,  as  it 
were,  from  his  soul  in  a  moment  of  frenzy,  left  the  stamp 
of  ineffaceable  ignominy  upon  his  forehead  ?  He  had 
gone  iii  quest  of  work,  first  in  New  York,  then  in  Chicago 
and  St.  Louis,  but  pitying  glances  at  his  white  hands  and 
delicate  skin  or  even  dark  frowns  of  suspicion  had  met 
him  wherever  he  came.  "Pray,  in  what  fairy  tale  were 
you  born,  sir?"  a  bright-eyed  little  Chicago  woman  had 
said  to  him.  "  You  look  for  all  the  world  like  a  disguised 
prince.  If  we  could  afford  to  entertain  a  perpetual  joke 
in  the  shape  of  a  coachman,  we  should  be  happy  to  en 
gage  you.  But  I  regret  to  say  that  we  can't." 

The  thought  that  he  was  forced  to  bear  this  manner  of 
address  from  a  stranger  had  stung  him  to  the  quick.  His 
heart  went  forward  with  a  great  yearning  toward  the 
land  of  his  birth,  but  the  memory  of  his  crime  rose  like  a 
great  black  wall  between  him  and  it,  keeping  it  forever 


22  FALCONBERQ. 

inaccessible  to  his  returning  footsteps.  The  solitude  in 
the  midst  of  the  crowd  was  to  him  deeper  than  that  of 
the  primeval  desert.  It  beat  upon  his  sense  like  a  posi 
tive  obtrusive  force,  and  at  other  times  seemed  to  inclose 
him  like  a  cold  translucent  veil,  transmitting  sounds  and 
objects  only  with  blurred  outlines  and  depriving  them  of 
both  shape  and  meaning.  I  can  imagine  that  a  dainty 
bird,  suddenly  transported  from  his  airy  companionship 
into  a  colony  of  beavers,  would  look  with  a  sad  puzzled 
frown  upon  the  doings  of  these  busy  water-workers,  which 
must  appear  so  utterly  unintelligible  to  him,  and  still  in 
his  little  heart  feel  a  profound  contempt  for  their  sordid 
utilitarian  habits.  Einar's  attitude  toward  the  busy  land 
to  which  a  hostile  fate  had  driven  him  was  hardly  less 
anomalous.  At  times,  as  he  walked  through  the  streets 
and  wondered  at  the  bewildering  aspect  life  was  assuming 
to  him,  a  sudden  dread  would  vibrate  through  his  frame 
like  the  shadow  of  some  great  calamity,  vaguely  seen 
from  afar.  His  reason  seemed  to  be  wandering  beyond 
his  reach,  leaving  him  in  utter  darkness.  He  then  thought 
of.  the  letter  to  his  uncle  and  determined  as  his  last  refuge 
to  seek  him. 

It  was  on  an  afternoon,  early  in  June,  that  he  saw  from 
the  distance  the  little  Norwegian  settlement,  put  down  in 
the  official  postal  guide  as  Pine  Ridge,  but  known  to  the 
settlers  of  Viking  descent  as  Hardanger.  He  had  walked 
in  two  dajs  nearly  fifty  miles  from  the  nearest  railroad 
line,  and  was  nearly  overcome  with  heat  and  exhaustion. 
Then  the  sight  of  a  little  red-painted  house  with  white 
gables,  perched  on  a  neighboring  hill-top  broke  through 
his  torpid  sense ;  he  paused  abruptly,  shaded  his  brow 
with  his  hands,  and  a  sudden  rush  of  tears  blinded  his 
eyes.  It  was  the  first  remembrance  of  the  dear,  far-off 


A  NORSE  SETTLEMENT.  23 

home  he  had  met  in  this  great  unintelligible  land.  He 
threw  himself  down  in  the  grass,  under  the  sheltering 
branches  of  a  huge,  low-limbed  pine,  and  there,  hidden 
away  from  the  pitiless  world,  gave  free  course  to  his 
tears.  And  like  a  heart-sick  wandering  child  to  whom 
the  near  threshold  of  home  gives  the  first  sense  of  safety, 
he  fell  fast  asleep  and  dreamed  that  he  was  again  a  boy 
in  school  and  that  his  teacher  scolded  him  because  he  did 
not  know  his  lesson.  When  he  awoke  the  sun  stood 
already  low  over  the  western  ridge  of  hills,  and  rlie  sound 
of  cattle-bells  fell  pleasantly  upon  his  ears  from  the  near 
meadows.  He  started  up,  seized  his  valise,  and  looked 
once  more  at  the  red-painted  house  on  the  hill-top.  It 
seemed  to  him  that  he  had  never  had  so  sweet  a  sleep 
since  he  came  to  America.  The  former  lethargy,  in 
which  the  thought  moved  numbly  as  if  clogged  by  the 
touch  of  clammy  cobwebs,  was  swept  away,  and  he  felt 
with  gratitude  something  of  his  old  joy  in  life  reviving. 
From  the  neighboring  glen,  through  which  a  stream 
swollen  by  recent  rains,  plunged  with  continuous  brawl, 
came  the  well-remembered,  long-drawn  notes  of  the  Norse 
cattle-call,  and  a  flaxen-haired  maid  came  yodeling  down 
the  slope,  followed  by  a  long  procession  of  black,  brown 
and  white  cows.  In  the  bottom  of  the  valley  glittered  a 
bright,  narrow  lake,  which  wound  itself  northward 
between  grassy  meadow-slopes  interrupted  here  and  there 
by  broad  tracts  of  uncleared  forest.  How  could  this 
beautiful  bit  of  Norway  have  been  transplanted  into  the 
heart  of  this  mammoth-boned,  huge- veined  continent  ?  It 
was  very  puzzling,  but  nevertheless  wondrously  delightful. 
As  Einar  turned  his  face  toward  the  settlement  which 
seemed  to  be  climbing  laboriously  up  the  western  hill 
side,  he  began  to  discover  many  features  which  soon  con- 


24  FALCONBERG. 

vinced  him  that  he  was  not  in  Norway.  The  town  looked 
singularly  like  a  large  crab  or  cuttle-fish  with  an  easily 
definable  center  and  numerous  irregular  arms  stretching 
upward,  downward  and  sideward  in  all' imaginable  direc 
tions.  Around  the  square  there  were,  perhaps,  half  a 
dozen  solid  stone  houses  and  three  or  four  plain  white- 
spired  churches,  and  from  this  starting-point  large  and 
small  streets  of  various  length  sparsely  lined  writh  diminu 
tive  houses  of  a  nondescript  architecture,  straggled  away  at 
their  own  sweet  will  and  with  a  truly  democratic  diversity 
of  purpose. 

As  Einar  Falconberg  was  ascending  the  slope  from  the 
lake  and  the  strange  town  with  its  unseen  inhabitants 
became  less  of  a  fantastic  abstraction  and  more  of  a  mo 
mentous  reality  to  him,  he  began  to  feel  a  growing  disin 
clination  to  throw  himself  like  a  culprit  on  his  uncle's 
mercy  and  perhaps  expose  himself  once  more  to  harsh 
condemnation,  contumely  and  disgrace.  Was  there  any 
presumption  in  believing  that  his  past  Bufferings  had 
amply  atoned  for  his  guilt,  and  was  it  not  probable  that 
Providence  (for  he  had  come  to  believe  vaguely  in  an  all- 
governing  will)  had  given  him  this  chance  in  order  that 
he  might  rebuild  his  fair  name  and  perhaps  in  time  attain 
anew  and  hitherto  undreamtof  happiness?  To  a  man 
of  his  sanguine  temper  happiness  was  naturally  the  last 
and  highest  aim  of  human  endeavor,  the  idea  of  useful 
ness  was  as  yet  foreign  to  his  thought.  The  utilitarian 
philosophy  which  the  moralists  of  this  century  have 
revived  has  not  yet  penetrated  to  that  secluded  corner  of 
the  world  where  fate  placed  his  cradle,  and  if  it  had,  it 
would  have  passed  over  his  head  without  mingling  with 
the  deeper  springs  of  his  being.  He  was,  like  the  majority 
of  his  race,  by  nature  an  idealist. 


A  NORSE  SETTLEMENT.  25 

When  Einar  had  reached  the  remote  end  of  Main 
street,  where  an  improvised  rail -fence  marks  the  boun 
dary  between  the  town  of  Hardanger  and  the  adjoining 
farms,  he  had,  perhaps,  for  the  first  time  in  his  life  dis 
charged  the  difficult  duty  of  forming  a  resolution,  unaided 
by  the  pressure  of  inevitable  circumstances.  He  would 
not  make  himself  known  to  his  uncle,  and  to  avoid  recog 
nition  would  assume  his  middle  name,  Finnson,  abandon 
ing  forever  his  claim  to  membership  in  the  illustrious 
family  of  the  Falconbergs.  He  would  seek  some  employ 
ment  among  his  countrymen,  and  do  his  best  to  efface  the 
sad  record  of  the  years  that  lay  behind  him.  He  breathed 
out  freely  as  if  some  heavy  weight  had  been  rolled  off  his 
breast  when  the  last  scruple  was  silenced  and  the  resolve 
irrevocably  taken. 

In  an  unbroken  field,  not  far  from  the  street,  covered 
with  the  stumps  of  felled  trees,  some  fresh,  others  slowly 
rotting  in  the  ground,  Einar  discovered  a  small,  rudely 
built  log  house  of  an  unmistakably  Norse  aspect.  Making 
his  way  through  the  deep  reddish  mud,  in  which  bits  of 
planks  floated  at  irregular  distances,  he  entered  a  chaotic 
little  garden  where  blooming  auriculas  and  a  solitary  rose 
bush  grew  in  friendly  proximity  to  youthful  cabbage 
plants  and  potatoes.  In  front  of  the  door  lay  a  little 
heap  of  newly  split  kitchen  wood,  and  an  axe  of  a  dis 
tinctly  Norse  physiognomy  was  struck  firmly  into  the 
end  of  the  block.  A  long  fishing-rod  stood  leaning 
against  the  thatch  of  the  roof,  and  two  more  rested  hori 
zontally  upon  pegs  stuck  into  the  timbers  of  the  wall. 
Everything  was  so  charmingly  primitive,  or,  as  Einar 
thought,  so  charmingly  Norwegian.  He  stopped  upon 
an  insular  plank  in  the  midst  of  the  mud-pool  and  a  joy 
ous  smile  lit  up  his  countenance  as  he  gazed  upon  these 
2* 


26  FALCONBERG. 

well-known  objects.  Through  the  half-opened  door  came 
the  sound  of  the  dear  familiar  tongue  which  he  had 
hungered  so  long  to  hear.  He  drank  in  the  indifferent 
words  and  stood  listening  with  a  kind  of  eager  fascina 
tion. 

"  I  am  afraid  you  will  never  amount  to  much  as  a 
farmer.  Magnus,"  said  a  deep,  rudely  articulated,  bass 
voice.  "  You  don't  seem  to  get  the  hang  of  things,  how 
ever  much  one  tries  to  teach  you.  I  can't  quite  afford  to 
plough  for  you  every  year,  although,  God  knows,  I  am 
willing  enough  to  help  where  it  seems  reasonable." 

".Yes,  Nils,"  answered  a  thin,  piping  treble.  "  I  can't 
complain  of  you,  and  I  never  did,  so  help  me,  God.  No, 
Nils,  you  have  been  a  good  neighbor  to  me,  and  that  1 
have  always  said  to  Annie  Lisbeth  too.  '  Annie  Lisbeth,' 
I  have  said,  '  God  knows  what  would  become  of  us,  if  it 
were  not  for  Nils  Norderud  ? '  But  you  know,  Nils,  it 
was  my  bad  luck  that  I  was  born  on  the  water.  And, 
since  I  came  over  to  this  country  with  my  little  one,  I 
have  often  been  pretty  vexed  with  my  mother  (God  have 
mercy  on  her  soul),  because  she  played  me  that  bad  trick 
to  bring  me  into  the  world  on  a  fishing  schooner,  instead 
of  giving  me  a  decent  birth  like  another  Christian  man. 
For  there  I  breathed  in  that  devilish  iish-smell  until  I  be 
came  half  a  fish  myself.  You  can't  teach  an  otter  to  dig 
for  angle-worms,  like  a  mole.  He  hasn't  got  it  in  him; 
and  he  can't  do  it.  No,  God  help  me  !  I  see  I'm  pretty 
badly  off,  and  since  this  devilish  ague  got  into  my  bones, 
I  should  be  quite  willing,  if  it  were  not  for  the  lass,  to 
sell  my  whole  miserable  carcass  for  a  quid  of  tobacco." 

"  It  has  hardly  come  to  that  yet,  Magnus,"  answered 
the  bass  voice,  with  a  perceptibly  gentler  intonation. 
"  And  any  way,  it  is  no  use  whining.  Send  the  girl  up 


A  NORSE  SETTLEMENT.  27 

to  my  house  after  dark,  and  my  wife  will  give  her  what 
you  may  happen  to  need.  Farewell,  and  a  speedy  re 
covery." 

Einar  advanced  cautiously  toward  the  door  and  knocked. 
He  was  met  by  a  tall,  broad-shouldered  man,  with  a  large, 
grave,  good-natured  face,  surmounted  by  a  thick  crop  of 
light,  towy  hair. 

"  Is  this  the  settlement  of  Hardanger  ?  "  asked  Einar, 
in  order  to  say  something. 

"  To  be  sure  it  is,"  answered  the  man.  "  Whom  do  you 
seek  here  ? " 

"  I  seek  work." 

The  grave  man  remained  silent  for  some  moments, 
during  which  his  blue  eyes  dwelt  with  a  critical  look  upon 
Einar's  countenance. 

"  Judging  by  your  looks,  you  seem  to  be  an  honest  fel 
low,"  he  said,  at  last.  "  Come  in.  A  countryman  is  al 
ways  welcome." 

He  threw  the  door  open,  and  Einar  entered.  The  room 
was  small,  and  filled  with  the-  mingled  odors  of  fish  and 
smoke.  In  a  corner  was  a  rude  stone  hearth,  the  floor 
was  black  with  long-accumulated  layers  of  dirt,  and  the 
impaneled  timber  walls  were  covered  with  kitchen  imple 
ments,  old  clothes,  and  fishing  apparatus.  Upon  a  bed 
made  of  unplaned  planks  roughly  nailed  together,  lay  a 
little  man  with  a  large  hooked  nose,  thin  lips,  and  a  pair 
of  small  keen  black  eyes. 

"  Ah,  ah ! "  said  the  invalid,  raising  himself  upon  his 
elbows  and  regarding  Einar  with  vivid  interest.  u  Gen 
tlefolks  out  walking  to-day?  Lately  from  Norway, 
eh?" 

Einar  explained  that  he  had  left  Norway  some  months 
ago. 


28  FALCONBERO. 

"  Take  a  seat,  sir,"  *  said  the  long-limbed  farmer,  who 
was  evidently  the  one  who  had  been  addressed  as  Nor- 
dernd.  "  Any  news  from  the  old  country  ? " 

"  I  have  not  seen  a  Norwegian  paper  since  I  left  home/' 
answered  Einar,  seating  himself  upon  a  solid  wooden 
block  near  the  door. 

"  What  is  your  name  \ " 

"  Einar  Finnson." 

"  A  man  of  study  \  " 

"  Yes,  I  have  been  at  the  university." 

u  I  am  afraid  that  wont  help  you  much  here.  What 
we  need  here  is  strong  arms  to  break  up  the  untilled  land. 
Your  hands  seem  rather  delicate  for  that  kind  of  work. 
Look  at  Magnus  there  ; " — here  Norderud  pointed  to  the 
man  in  the  bed  ; — "  he  too  has  studied  in  his  way — navi 
gation  I  think  he  calls  it.  He  is  a  regular  water-rat. 
And  you  see  what  he  has  come  to." 

Einar  glanced  at  the  invalid  and  owned  that  if  his  con 
dition  was  the  result  of  study  his  own  outlook  was  not  a 
cheerful  one.  Magnus  heaved  a  long  sigh,  as  if  in  recog 
nition  of  the  melancholy  allusion,  and  seemed  profoundly 
conscious  of  his  own  impressiveness  as  an  example  of 
what  needless  learning  could  lead  to. 

Norderud  again  lapsed  into  silence,  pulled  out  his  knife 
and  began  to  whittle  in  a  slow,  meditative  manner  upon 
the  knots  of  a  hickory  stick  which  he  held  in  his  hand. 

u  And  how  about  the  Storthing  ? "  f  he  broke  out  at 
last,  sending  again  that  same  searching  look  into  Einar's 
face.  u  I  suppose  they  are  talking  a  great  deal  and  doing 


*  I  have  rendered  the  Norwegian  "  far,"  with  "  sir,"  as  the  English 
"  father  "  would  give  an  erroneous  impression, 
f  Parliament. 


A  NORSE  SETTLEMENT.  29 

nothing  as  usual,  except  voting  money  out  of  the  peas 
ants'  pockets." 

Einar  replied  modestly  that  he  had  never  taken  a  very 
hearty  interest  in  politics,  and  that  he  knew  very  little 
about  the  doings  of  the  Storthing. 

"What!"  exclaimed  the  farmer  gruffly.  "Take  no 
interest  in  politics?  What  then  do  the  young  men  in 
Norway  take  an  interest  in  ?  Dancing-parties  and  thea 
ters  and  all  that  sort  of  nonsense,  I  suppose ;  the  country 
might  probably  go  to  the  devil  for  all  they  would  care." 

The  young  man  began  to  feel  very  uncomfortable. 
Norderud  was,  evidently,  in  spite  of  his  Norse  origin, 
hopelessly  utilitarian  in  his  views  of  life,  and  there  would 
be  no  way  of  getting  on  with  him.  He  was  conscious  of 
having  produced  an  unfavorable  impression, — an  experi 
ence  which,  his  late  wanderings  notwithstanding,  could 
never  lose  its  sting  of  painful  novelty  to  him.  The  obtuse 
sense  of  this  peasant  was  evidently  impervious  to  those 
charms  of  youth  and  personal  beauty  upon  which  he  had 
hitherto  based  his  hopes  of  happiness  and  success.  It 
was  therefore  with  a  feeling  akin  to  resentment  that  he 
arose,  and  extending  his  hand  to  the  sick  man,  whom  in 
spite  of  his  silence  he  divined  to  be  the  host,  bade  him 
good-bye,  and  in  his  usual  hearty  way  expressed  the  hope 
of  his  speedy  recovery. 

"Ah,  yes,  yes,"  answered  Magnus  plaintively,  "you 
are  a  fine  yotmg  man.  I  see  it  by  his  face,  Nils,  that  he 
is  a  fine  young  man.  And  " — again  addressing  Einar — 
"you  must  not  judge  the  dog  by  his  skin  either;  Nils 
has  a  way  of  showing  his  teeth  and  growling,  when  he 
don't  mean  to  bite  at  all.  For  there  aint  a  man  in  the 
town  who  is  safer  to  come  to  in  trouble  than  Nils  Nor- 
derud,  and  if  you  want  help,  young  man,  you  had  better 


30  FALCONBERG. 

go  to  him,  for  with  no  one  else  will  you  be  surer  to  find 
it." 

"Now  stay  your  foolish  tongue,  Magnus,"  broke  in 
Norderud  in  a  voice  which  was  evidently  intended  to  be 
fiercer  than  it  was. 

They  shook  hands  once  more  and  Einar  and  Norderud 
left  the  house  together.  It  must  have  rained  heavily  in 
Hardanger  during  the  forenoon  ;  for  wherever  the  Main 
street  took  a  momentary  rest  from  ito  steep  climb,  the 
water  stood  in  large,  shallow  pools,  reflecting  bits  of  blue 
sky  with  its  accessories  of  cloud  and  sunlight.  There  was 
no  pretense  of  a  sidewalk,  and  the  soft  sod  which  covered 
the  edge  of  the  road  yielded  to  the  foot  and  sucked  it 
down  so  that  it  sometimes  required  much  vigorous  pulling 
on  Einar's  part  to  enable  him  to  keep  pace  with  his  long- 
legged  companion.  Norderud  walked  on  with  large 
strides,  and  seemed  for  a  time  equally  unconscious  both 
of  the  mud  and  Einar's  presence.  His  dress  was  of  a 
rough,  dark-blue  cloth,  closely  resembling  the  Norwegian 
wadmalj  of  a  semi-modern  cut,  quite  innocent  of  style, 
and  devoid  of  all  the  picturesque  details  which  charac 
terize  the  national  costumes  of  Norway.  On  his  head  he 
wore  a  round  felt  hat  and  about  his  neck  a  vivid  silk 
handkerchief,  the  ends  of  which  were  tucked  into  the 
bosom  of  his  dark  single-breasted  waistcoat.  lie  stooped 
heavily,  carried  his  head  a  little  on  one  side,  as  if  he  were 
trying  to  grasp  some  puzzling  thought,  and  habitually 
had  his  hands  plunged  deeply  into  his  pockets.  There 
was  a  look  of  grave  solidity  about  his  whole  figure,  a 
placid  strength  and  self-confidence,  naturally  fostered  by 
the  isolation  of  pioneer  life  and  an  early  independence  of 
thought.  His  face  was  deeply  fun-owed  by  wrinkles, 
among  which  the  two  obliquely  converging  ones,  separat- 


A  NORSE  SETTLEMENT.  31 

ing  the  region  of  the  cheek  from  that  of  month  and  chin, 
were  the  most  prominent.  Like  most  men  who  are  them 
selves  lacking  in  the  social  graces,  he  had  a  deep-rooted 
contempt  for  gentility  of  manners  and  external  polish, 
and  was  perhaps  inclined  to  judge  them  a  priori  as  a 
sorry  device  to  conceal  internal  worthlessness,  or,  as  the 
conventional  substitute  for  the  solider  qualities  of  mind 
and  heart.  A  rugged  pine  which  feels  in  its  trunk  the 
accumulated  strength  of  centuries  looks  probably  from  its 
stormy  height  with  a  similar  contempt  upon  the  dainty 
white-stemmed  birches  and  the  slim-fingered  willows 
which  find  shelter  under  its  crown. 

Gratitude  was  not  the  uppermost  emotion  in  Einar's 
mind,  as,  trudging  wearily  in  Norderud's  footsteps,  he  be 
held  the  primitive  aspect  of  the  town  which  he  had  chosen 
for  his  future  home.  He  was  rather  conscious  of  a  rising 
irritation  at  the  discourtesy  with  which  the  farmer  treated 
him,  and  was  just  devising  some  method  by  which  with 
out  offending  him  he  might  rid  himself  of  his  oppressive 
companionship,  when  Norderud  suddenly  turned  round 
and  again  measured  him  with  his  critical  gaze. 

"  You  look  tired,"  he  said.  "  Come,  let  me  carry  your 
bag." 

"  No,  I  thank  you,  it  is  quite  unnecessary." 

He  was  quite  prepared  to  yield  to  further  urging,  but 
to  his  surprise  Norderud  dropped  the  question  and  again 
marched  on.  He  heartily  repented  of  his  politeness. 
After  half  an  hour's  walk  they  stopped  at  the  western  ex 
tremity  of  the  town  in  front  of  a  stately  buff-colored  house 
with  a  comfortable,  spacious  look  and  surrounded  by  a 
broad  piazza.  The  green  shutters  were  thrown  open  in  the 
first  story,  and  Einar  saw  some  blonde,  curious  women's 
faces  gazing  at  him  through  the  uncurtained  windows. 


32  FALCONBERG. 

"  I  shall  have  to  bid  you  good-bye  here,  sir,"  said  he. 
"  Perhaps  you  could  tell  me  where  I  can  find  a  hotel  ?  " 

'"  Where  do  you  intend  to  go  ? " 

"  Somewhere  where  I  can  find  lodgings  for  the  night." 

"  That  you  can  find  with  me  if  you  have  nothing 
better." 

Einar  hesitated  for  a  moment,  then  entered  through  an 
open  gate  a  short  avenue  of  young  trees  leading  up  to 
Norderud's  mansion.  He  was  dimly  aware  that  he  was 
closing — irrevocably  closing — a  chapter  in  his  life's  his 
tory,  and  that  a  new,  greater  and  more  momentous  one 
was  opening.  Hence  his  hesitation.  The  simple  act  of 
entering  a  hospitably  inviting  house  seemed  full  of 
meaning. 


CHAPTEE  III. 

NORDEEUD. 

NILS  AMUNDSON  NOKDERUD  was  the  oldest  settler  in 
Hardanger.  His  history,  simple  and  unromantic  as  it 
may  seem,  still  carries  a  wider  significance  from  the  fact 
that  it  possessed  certain  features  in  common  with  that  of 
thousands  of  his  countrymen  who  have  since  followed  in 
his  footsteps,  and  with  that  of  thousands  who  are  yet  to 
follow. 

Nils  Norderud's  father  had  been  a  houseman  in  the  dis 
trict  of  Hardanger  and  the  son  had  early  felt  with  some 
impatience  the  narrowing  conditions  of  his  birth.  In  his 
twentieth  year  he  had  married  the  woman  of  his  choice, 
and  when  three  sons  had  been  born  to  him  in  quick  suc 
cession  the  forecasting  care  for  the  future  of  his  progeny 
had  led  him  to  ponder  more  deeply  over  the  hopelessness 
of  his  lot,  and  finally  determined  him  to  accept  the  risk 
of  transplanting  his  already  well-matured  life  rather  than 
to  eke  it  out  in  a  soil  which  promised  nothing  but  depen 
dence  and  penury.  Accordingly  in  the  year  1848  he  set 
sail  for  the  New  World,  and,  after  a  brief  sojourn  in 
Michigan,  took  land  under  the  homestead  law  in  the  wild 
backwoods  of  Minnesota.  There  was  a  vastness  of  scope  in 
the  pioneer's  solitude  upon  the  broad  breast  of  this  huge 
new-born  continent,  a  refreshing  sense  of  illimitable  free 
dom,  a  constant  appeal  to  all  the  larger  faculties  of  his 
2* 


34  FALCONBERG. 

soul,  and  like  a  seed-corn  which  after  a  long  entombment 
in  an  Egyptian  sepulcher  is  planted  in  fertile  soil,  he  felt 
the  hidden  energies  of  his  being  shooting  forth  with  a 
lusty  superabundance  of  strength  and  his  hitherto  cramped 
manhood  developing  its  stature  in  the  scale  of  dimensions 
according  to  which  Nature  had  originally  designed  it. 

Flocks  of  immigrants  of  various  nationalities  followed 
annually  in  Nordernd's  footsteps  ;  his  land  rose  rapidly  in 
value,  and  a  succession  of  liberal  harvests  removed  the 
possibility  of  want  for  many  years  to  come.  Gradually 
as  the  comparative  security  of  his  position  relaxed  the 
strain  upon  his  nerves,  he  began  to  feel  more  keenly  the 
disadvantages  of  his  isolation  and  to  yearn  for  a  wider 
companionship.  The  home  memories  were  aroused  with 
in  him,  and  he  resolved  to  lay  aside  an  annual  amount  for 
the  benefit  of  countrymen  who  might  wish  to  tread  the 
same  road  to  fortune  which  he  had  trodden.  By  his  aid 
several  of  his  acquaintances  from  Hardanger  were  en 
abled  to  take  land  in  his  neighborhood,  and  before  long 
the  valley  resounded  with  the  tinkling  of  Norse  bells  and 
with  the  echoes  of  the  Norse  cattle-calls. 

The  new  settlers,  with  an  impulse  common  to  their  race, 
sought  to  gather  their  own  kith  and  kin  about  them, 
and  thus  it  happened  that  for  many  years  the  paths  of 
Norsemen,  whose  aspirations  had  been  strong  enough  to 
conquer  their  natural  vis  inertice,  were  seen  to  converge 
toward  this  isolated  little  settlement  where  the  clasp  of 
eager  hands  and  the  sound  of  familiar  voices  were  always 
ready  to  greet  them.  With  every  passing  month  the  pio 
neer's  ax  broke  an  ever  widening  pathway  for  the  sun 
light  into  the  heart  of  the  primeval  forest,  the  little  green 
clearings  with  their  improvised  log-cabin  grew  into  large 
farms  with  roomy  barns  and  solidly  timbered  houses,  and 


NORDERUD.  35 

Norse  speech  and  Norse  memories  bound  all  this  widely 
scattered  neighborhood  together  as  by  a  strong  invisible 
tie.  The  Indians,  who  had  at  first  assumed  a  very  hos 
tile  attitude  toward  the  fair-haired  invaders  and  even  de 
prived  them  of  two  or  three  scalps,  now  became  scarce  and 
the  few  who  remained,  with  the  innate  magnanimity  of 
the  noble  savage,  gradually  changed  their  policy  in  pro 
portion  as  the  settlers  grew  in  numbers. 

It  was  a  day  of  joyful  triumph  to  Norderud  when  in  the 
seventh  year  after  his  emigration,  the  farmers,  at  his  sug 
gestion,  determined  to  organize  into  a  congregation,  to 
build  a  church  and  call  a  Norwegian  minister  to  preach 
to  them.  They  had  felt  themselves  little  better  than 
heathens  hitherto,  with  their  youngest  children  nn bap 
tized  and  themselves  cut  off  from  the  sacraments;  al 
though,  to  be  sure,  they  had  been  zealous  enough  in  their 
attendance  upon  the  meetings  for  prayer  and  worship 
which  Norderud  had  held  at  his  own  house  every  Sunday, 
since  the  earliest  days  of  the  settlement.  They  had  all 
been  accustomed  to  look  upon  him  as  a  leader,  and  he  had, 
without  arrogance  or  undue  assumption  of  superiority, 
naturally  come  to  regard  himself  as  a  man  whose  voice 
was  weightier  and  whose  opinions,  founded  upon  a  large 
experience,  were  entitled  to  a  greater  respect  than  those 
of  the  herd  of  his  fellow-creatures.  Whenever  his  deep 
bass  voice  was  heard  in  their  primitive  councils  the  farm 
ers  sat  listening  to  him  with  a  solemn  gravity  and  with  a 
sort  of  brooding  attention  which  were  in  themselves  an 
evidence  of  the  significance  they  attached  to  his  words. 
Now  Norderud  advised  that  they  should  call  the  Rev. 
Marcus  Falconberg  to  become  their  pastor,  and  as  no  one 
knew  of  any  objections  to  urge  against  Mr.  Falconberg, 
the  call  was  tendered  and  promptly  accepted.  Within 


36  FALCONBERG. 

six  months  the  church  was  completed.  It  was  a  square 
wooden  structure,  surmounted  by  a  disproportionately 
small  bell-tower,  externally  barren  of  ornament  but  dis 
playing  within  a  half-pathetic  attempt  at  a  reproduction 
of  the  Norse  arrangement  of  choir,  nave  and  galleries. 

About  this  time  a  new  epoch  began  in  the  history  of 
the  settlement.  As  civilization  pushed  its  intenser  life 
ever  farther  westward  and  the  impetuous  spirit  of  the 
century  made  itself  felt  in  the  hurried  din  and  rush  of 
locomotives,  the  fertility  of  the  Hardanger  valley  could 
of  course  no  longer  remain  hidden,  and  from  all  sides, 
foreign  farmers,  artisans  and  tradesmen  poured  in,  in  an 
ever  thickening  current,  mingling  their  noisy  and  discor 
dant  lives  with  the  primitive  peace  and  simplicity  of  the 
Norsemen.  About  the  spot  where  Norderud's  farm  was 
located  the  population  gradually  centered,  and  within  two 
or  three  years,  a  thriving  village,  counting  some  twenty- 
live  hundred  souls,  had  climbed  more  than  half-way  up 
the  hill-side,  and  had  sent  forth  two  long  antennae  in  the 
shape  of  unbuilt,  but  indefinitely  prolonged,  streets  up 
toward  the  wall  of  the  ever-receding  forest.  Norderud 
had  had  the  opportunity  to  sell  part  of  his  land  in  lots, 
and  had  gained  a  very  considerable  fortune  by  the  trans 
action  ;  he  had  a  large,  handsome,  though  architecturally 
unpretentious,  mansion,  built  right  by  the  side  of  the  old 
farm-house,  erected  a  business  block  in  the  town,  called 
"  The  Norderud  Block,"  and  began  to  be  agreeably  con 
scious  of  that  added  dignity  which  wealth  and  influ 
ence  gave  to  native  skill  and  merit.  As  the  years  ad 
vanced,  however,  and  the  aspect  of  the  town  changed, 
Norderud's  ambition  grew,  and  he  was  at  times  haunt 
ed  by  a  suspicion  that  in  municipal  affairs  his  voice 
no  longer  carried  the  same  weight  as  it  did  in  earlier 


NORDERUD.  37 

days.  He  was  frequently  aware  that  his  Yankee  neigh 
bors,  by  dint  of  their  far-sightedness  and  swiftness  of 
thought,  outwitted  him,  and  he  saw  with  a  slow-growing 
irritation  that  their  farms  on  the  same  area  yielded  nearly 
double  what  his  had  ever  produced.  He  had  of  course, 
like  the  stanch  old  Norseman  that  he  was,  looked  with  a 
smile  of  contempt  upon  their  strange  new-fangled  plows 
and  sowers,  and  reapers,  and  had  only  clung  the  more 
tenaciously  to  the  stout,  old-fashioned  Norse  implements 
which  his  father  and  his  father's  father  had  handled  be 
fore  him,  and  the  excellence  of  which  a  long  succession 
of  centuries  had  tested.  At  last,  however,  when  his 
neighbor,  Tappan,  a  very  good-natured  and  harmless  man, 
proposed  to  lend  him  his  plow  and  afterward  his  harrows, 
Norderud,  not  liking  to  be  unneighborly  and  regarding 
the  thing  rather  as  a  good  joke,  laughed  his  skeptical 
laugh  and  accepted  the  offer.  The  next  year  (there  was 
no  need  for  indecent  haste)  when  he  was  once  more  in 
his  jocose  mood  he  bought  a  similar  plow  himself,  and 
slowly  but  surely,  harrows,  sowers,  reapers  and  other 
"  destructive  innovations  "  followed.  The  next  logically 
inevitable  step  in  Norderud's  career  was  to  send  his 
younger  children  to  the  public  school,  which  the  village 
at  its  first  organization  had  established.  His  pastor,  Mr. 
Falconberg,  gave  him  an  emphatic  warning,  and  at  length 
attempted  to  use  his  authority,  as  a  shepherd  of  souls,  to 
hinder  so  disastrous  a  step.  He  called  the  common  school 
godless,  demoralizing,  "  a  very  hot-bed  of  all  manner  of 
abomination,"  and  threatened  his  parishioner  with  eternal 
damnations,  if  he  did  not  remove  his  sons  from  these  per 
nicious  influences.  But  Norderud  did  not  belong  to  that 
genus  of  men  which  grasps  with  hot-headed  zeal  after  in 
novations  and  then  with  equal  haste  retires.  He  had 


38  FALCONBERG. 

taken  this  step  after  mature  deliberation,  and  was  not  to 
be  moved.  Many  of  the  other  Norse  farmers  whose  con 
fidence  in  him  the  years  had  strengthened,  in  this  in 
stance,  too,  thought  it  quite  safe  to  tread  where  he  had 
trodden  ;  and  within  another  year  the  clumsy  agricultural 
implements  of  antediluvian  make  were  exchanged  for 
slender,  bright-painted  contrivances — "  the  latest  results 
of  time."  English  speech  mingled  with,  and  soon  became 
predominant  over,  the  Norse,  and  blue-eyed  and  flaxen- 
haired  children  thronged  the  school-house  of  the  village. 

This  gradual  change  of  base  on  Norderud's  part  was 
evidently  charged  with  even  graver  results  than  he  him 
self  had  anticipated.  But  he  had  once  honestly  taken  his 
position,  and  he  did  not  shrink  from  the  consequences. 
He  did  once  believe  that  Norway  held  the  foremost  rank 
among  civilized  nations,  and  that  what  people  in  Norway 
did  not  know  could  hardly  be  worth  knowing.  It  had 
never  entered  his  head  to  doubt  that  they  were  in  a  sense 
a  chosen  people  and  therefore  a  more  direct  object  of 
God's  care  than  Englishmen,  or  Turks,  or  Frenchmen,  or 
other  remote  nations  who  spoke  unintelligible  and  bar 
barous  tongues.  But  the  incident  with  the  plow  and  the 
harrows  had  pierced  the  hard  crust  of  his  mind  and  made 
it  accessible  to  the  planting  of  new  convictions.  For 
Norderud,  though  quite  deaf  to  oral  arguments,  had  a 
great  keenness  of  vision  for  the  interpretation  of  facts ; 
and  the  knowledge  gained  from  these  wrought  its  slow 
way  into  his  mind  and  in  due  time  stirred  it  to  action. 
He  was  well  aware  that  there  were  those  in  the  congrega 
tion  who,  with  the  pastor,  were  inclined  to  ascribe  sordid 
motives  to  whatever  he  did,  but  suspicions  of  this  kind 
never  disturbed  him.  This  Americanizing  process,  with 
him  as  with  thousands  of  others,  was  at  first  but  a  half- 


NORDERUD.  39 

conscious  one  ;  it  was  a  tangled  and  hidden  growth,  which 
like  young  spring-flowers,  peeping  forth  from  under  the 
cover  of  last  year's  dead  leaves,  surprise  us  by  their  sud 
den  bloom  and  perfection.  Thus  in  the  end  Norderud, 
too,  knew  where  he  stood.  He  had  chosen  to  follow  the 
current  of  time  rather  than  to  strive  vainly  against  it, 
and  at  length  be  thrown  up  like  useless  dross  or  barren 
deposits  upon  its  shores. 

Such  was  the  man  into  whose  hands  Einar's  good  for 
tune  had  led  him. 

The  sun  was  near  its  setting  and  its  long  rays  fell  slant 
ing  through  the  young  leaves  of  the  orchard  and  sprinkled 
the  grassy  lawn  in  front  of  the  house  with  little  quivering 
bits  of  subdued  light.  The  spring  had  been  late  in  its 
coming ;  the  dead  petals  of  apple  and  peach  blossoms  still 
covered  the  grass  with  a  thin  carpet  of  intermingled  pink 
and  white,  and  the  air  was  thick  with  the  odors  of  bloom 
ing  locust  and  hawthorn. 

"  It  is  a  very  beautiful  garden  you  have,  sir,"  said 
Einar,  as  they  walked  down  through  the  sunlit  avenue. 

"  The  women-folks  have  been  too  busy  in  the  kitchen- 
garden,"  replied  Norderud,  walking  out  upon  the  lawn  to 
cut  off  the  broken  branch  of  a  cherry-tree.  "  They  haven't 
had  time  yet  to  look  after  the  orchard." 

They  ascended  the  steps  to  the  piazza  and  tho  host 
opened  the  door  to  a  large,  airy  and  clean-swept  hall. 
While  putting  down  his  valise  and  giving  a  hasty  touch 
to  his  toilet,  Einar  heard  in  the  room  on  the  left,  which 
was  the  sitting-room,  the  rhythmic  strokes  of  what  he  at 
once  knew  to  be  a  hand-loom,  and,  on  entering,  he  saw  a 
tall  blonde  woman  with  a  snowy  white  cloth  bound  about 
her  head  seated  at  a  large  Norse  loom  near  the  window 
and  plying  the  shuttle  deftly.  As  her  eye  fell  upon  the 


40  FALCONBERQ. 

stranger  she  arose  quietly,  shook  the  front  of  her  dress, 
brushed  it  with  her  hands  and  advanced  toward  him. 

"  This  is  Mr.  Finnson,  Karen,"  said  Norderud,  "  a  young 
man  lately  from  Norway.  He  will  be  our  guest  for  some 
time." 

The  matron,  whom  Einar  at  once  concluded  to  be 
Madame  Norderud,  wiped  her  right  hand  carefully  with 
the  back  of  her  apron  and  extended  it  to  the  guest. 

"You  are  very  welcome,  Mr.  Finnson,"  said  she. 
"  Guests  from  Norway  have  been  scarce  here  of  late 
years." 

"  You  are  very  kind,  madame,"  replied  Einar,  with  a 
polite  bow.  "  It  is  a  very  long  time,  too,  since  I  was  wel 
comed  anywhere  in  my  native  tongue." 

Mrs.  or  Madame  Norderud,  as  she  was  usually  called 
by  the  farmers,  was  a  woman  in  the  neighborhood  of  fifty, 
and  her  dress  and  manner  showed  far  less  deference  to 
the  customs  of  the  land  in  which  she  lived  than  did  those 
of  her  husband.  She  wore  a  tight-fitting  waist  of  blue 
cloth,  fastened  in  front  with  hooks,  and  a  skirt  of  the  same 
stun0  which  reached  but  a  little  below  the  ankles  ;  a  large 
bunch  of  keys  depended  from  her  belt.  There  was  a  quiet 
air  of  housewifeliness  about  her  which  was  very  winning, 
and  her  calm  blue  eyes  seemed  to  diffuse  a  kindly  light 
over  everything  they  rested  on.  Her  features,  although 
covered  with  a  net  of  minute  wrinkles,  were  of  a  very 
pure  mold  and  gained  quite  a  new  beauty  when  lighted 
up  by  her  rare  smile.  Einar  felt  gratefully  the  effect  of 
this  hospitable  smile,  as  he  emerged  from  the  chill  atmos 
phere  of  Norderud's  silent  criticism  into  the  warm  radi 
ance  of  her  presence.  He  was  conscious  of  having  made 
a  favorable  impression  upon  her  and  could  not  suppress  a 
childlike  gratitude  to  her  for  consenting  to  like  him. 


NORDERUD.  41 

Einar,  in  the  meanwhile,  at  Norderud's  request,  had 
seated  himself  in  a  large,  leather-cushioned  sofa,  which 
covered  half  the  length  of  the  wall  between  the  southern 
windows.  Madame  Norderud  had  retired  for  a  moment 
to  the  kitchen  and  now  returned  with  a  large  bowl  filled 
with  milk  which  she  offered  to  him. 

"  You  have  walked  far,"  said  she.  "  You  must  be 
thirsty.  Drink  this  first  and  I  will  bring  you  more." 

lie  took  the  milk  and,  yielding  to  her  friendly  urging, 
drank  it  to  the  last  drop.  It  seemed  so  delightfully  strange 
to  him  that  this  quaint  Norse  custom  should  have  survived 
so  long  in  the  heart  of  a  foreign  civilization. 

Norderud,  who  was  anxious  to  learn  what  social  and 
political  changes  had  taken  place  in  Norway  during  the 
last  decade,  once  more  questioned  his  guest  concerning 
the  tendencies  of  the  Storthing,  and  especially  manifested 
a  lively  interest  in  Bjornson  and  Sverdrup,  for  both  of 
whom  he  entertained  the  warmest  admiration.  While 
they  were  talking  the  door  suddenly  burst  open  and  a 
young  girl,  very  much  flushed  and  out  of  breath,  rushed 
in  and,  to  Einar's  great  relief,  interrupted  their  political 
discussion. 

"  Mother,"  cried  she,  "  Princess  was  in  the  rye-field  and 
I  chased  her  out." 

"  You  did  well,  child,"  said  the  mother  quietly.  Then 
turning  to  Einar,  "This  is  our  youngest  child,  Ingrid. 
Shake  hands  with  the  gentleman,  Ingrid." 

Ingrid,  on  discovering  the  handsome  young  man  on  the 
sofa,  blushed  crimson  and  in  an  embarrassed  and  greatly 
subdued  manner  wheeled  toward  him  and  hesitatingly  ex 
tended  her  hand.  Having  successfully  accomplished  this, 
she  made  a  sudden  dash  for  the  door  and  disappeared. 
The  father,  forgetting  the  momentous  political  question 


42  FALCONBERO. 

which  had  occupied  him,  laughed  and  looked  up  with  an 
air  of  quiet  amusement,  while  the  mother  turned  a  grave 
countenance  toward  Einar  and  said  apologetically  : 

"  She  is  only  fifteen  years  old,  Mr.  Finnson — not  out  of 
school  yet." 

This  little  scene,  insignificant  though  it  seemed,  long 
remained  fresh  in  Einar's  memory.  Norderud's  parental 
indulgence  was  a  human  trait  which  he  distinctly  under 
stood  ;  it  revealed  an  untold  wealth  of  tenderness  in  this 
rugged  man's  bosom,  and  made  Einar  suddenly  feel  at  his 
ease  with  him.  The  sight  of  this  fair-haired  daughter 
naturally  suggested  some  allusion  to  Norderud's  family, 
which,  he  was  informed,  included  five  sons,  three  of  whom 
were  born  in  Norway  while  two  were  native  Americans. 
The  two  eldest  were  married  and  had  bought  farms  in  the 
neighborhood  ;  two  were  engaged  in  business  in  the  town 
and  lived  at  home,  and  the  youngest  was  away  studying 
at  an  eastern  college. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

A   MUSICAL   BATTLE. 

EINAR  had  not  remained  very  long  in  Norderud's  house 
before  his  suspicion  was  confirmed  that  his  host  did  not 
cherish  a  very  cordial  regard  for  his  native  land  and  its 
institutions.  He  was  fond  of  conversing  about  Nor 
way  and  displayed  a  startlingly  accurate  statistical  knowl 
edge  of  the  relation  between  exports  and  imports  and 
other  problems  of  political  economy  ;  but  he  had  no  hesi 
tation  in  pronouncing  his  decisive  judgment  upon  the 
actions  of  the  ministry,  principles  of  government  and 
other  profound  mysteries  which  Einar  had  been  accus 
tomed  to  regard  as  too  deep  for  common  comprehension 
and  had  looked  upon  from  afar  with  a  neutral  content  or 
with  ignorant  admiration. 

"  The  Norwegians  are  a  very  good  sort  of  people," 
Norderud  said,  "  but  they  are  hardly  out  of  their  swad 
dling  clothes  yet.  But  mark  my  word,  young  man,  the 
time  will  come  when  they  will  kick  through  the  useless 
nigs  and  throw  them  away.  For  there  is  the  right  sort  of 
stuff  in  them  and  they  can't  be  kept  in  eternal  babyhood." 

Einar  usually  listened  in  silence  to  these  and  similar 
prophecies  and  contracted  his  brow  with  an  air  of  medita 
tion,  as  if  he  had  suddenly  been  stimulated  to  deep 
thought.  The  truth  was  that  he  found  it  hard  to  reconcile 


44  FALCONBERG. 

this  apparent  lack  of  patriotism,  on  Norderud's  part,  with 
his  sturdy  common  sense  and  his  undeniable  benevolence 
and  goodness  of  heart. 

In  the  meanwhile,  as  the  days  passed  by,  the  young  ex 
ile  began  to  feel  with  some  discomfort  that  the  problem 
of  his  destiny  was  as  far  from  a  solution  as  ever.  He  was 
aware  that  he  must  be  the  object  of  much  secret  comment 
among  the  members  of  this  busy  and  rigidly  regulated 
household,  to  whom  an  agreeable  young  gentleman  like 
himself,  of  a  pleasure-loving  temper  and  unused  to  toil, 
must  be  a  very  anomalous  phenomenon.  With  the  same 
amiable  hopefulness  with  which  he  had  formerly  kept  his 
creditors  at  bay  he  had  now  succeeded  in  staving  off  the 
unpleasant  problems  ;  but  he  soon  discovered  that  the 
atmosphere  of  this  crude  village  with  its  bustling  activity 
was  not  congenial  to  the  kind  of  life  he  had  laid  out  for 
himself,  and  the  new-kindled  glow  of  hope  within  him 
grew  paler  as  the  impetuous  season  advanced.  There 
seemed  to  be  no  comfortable  vacant  niche  here  into  which 
he  might  drop  easily,  without  taking  the  trouble  to  fill 
out  the  wide  lacunce  in  his  previous  training.  And  still, 
as  an  academical  citizen  and  a  gentleman  of  culture,  with 
a  vast  store  of  miscellaneous  knowledge  at  his  disposal, 
he  could  not  but  feel  his  imagined  superiority  to  these 
toiling  mortals,  absorbed  in  sordid  cares  and  unable  to  rise 
into  a  serene  contemplation  of  scholarly  abstractions,  while 
at  the  same  time  he  secretly  envied  them  and  vaguely 
yearned  to  be  one  of  them. 

It  was  one  pleasant  afternoon,  as  Einar  was  sitting  on 
the  piazza,  trying  to  blow  away  his  restlessness  in  vigorous 
puffs  of  cigar-smoke,  that  Norderud,  having  just  returned 
from  the  village,  took  a  seat  at  his  side  and  addressed  him 
in  his  usual  blunt  fashion. 


A  MUSICAL  BATTLE.  45 

"  What  can  you  do,  Mr.  Finnson  ?  "  said  he.  "  It  is 
time  now  that  we  should  find  some  occupation  for  yon, 
and  you  know  I  am  ready  to  do  what  I  can  to  help  you." 

Einar's  thought  skimmed  rapidly  over  the  list  of  his 
accomplishments,  but  the  impartiality  of  his  tastes  pre 
vented  him  giving  preference  to  any  one  calling,  as  there 
were  at  least  twenty  other  things  which  he  would  like 
equally  well  to  do. 

"  I  can  do  almost  anything,"  he  answered  at  last,  hesi 
tatingly  ;  "or,  rather,  I  am  willing  for  the  moment  to  try 
any  thing  you  may  select  for  me." 

"  That  is  to  say  that  you  can  really  do  nothing,"  rejoined 
Norderud,  harshly.  "  Judging  from  your  case,  I  should 
be  inclined  to  believe  that  the  effect  of  university  training 
in  Norway  was  to  unfit  a  man  for  everything." 

Einar  felt  something  akin  to  wrath  kindling  within 
him ;  but  seeing  the  imperturbable  gravity  of  the  far 
mer's  countenance  and  his  evident  solicitude  for  his  wel 
fare,  he  checked  his  rising  indignation,  and,  with  forced 
self-control,  answered  : 

"  I  do  not  wonder  that  indecision  in  a  man  of  my  age 
must  appear  strange  and  even  unpardonable  to  you,  Mr. 
Norderud.  But  if  you  knew  the  circumstances  of  my 
past  life  you  would  perhaps  not  judge  me  so  harshly." 

Norderud  leaned  forward,  rested  his  elbows  on  his 
knees,  and  fixed  his  grave,  testing  glance  upon  the  stu 
dent. 

"  It  is  not  my  business  to  judge  men,"  began  he,  with 
a  slow,  measured  intonation.  "  I  leave  that  to  God,  who 
alone  has  the  right  to  judge.  I  only  want  to  help  you, 
but  you  make  it  deuced  difficult  to  me,  that  is  all  I  have 
to  say.  Still,"  added  he,  rising,  "  tell  me,  have  you  ever 
learned  to  play  the  organ  ? " 


40  FALCONBERG. 

"  Yes ;  I  have  had  some  practice  in  playing  both  the 
organ  and  the  piano." 

"  If  you  had  told  me  that  at  once  we  might  both  have 
been  spared  this  discussion." 

He  walked  rapidly  toward  the  gate,  and  Einar  lapsed 
once  more  into  profound  absorption,  striving  vainly  to 
find  a  key  to  this  new  enigma.  He  hardly  knew  whither 
to  turn,  but  it  mattered  little  if  he  could  but  once  more 
regain  his  sorrowful  liberty. 

It  was  in  this  state  of  mind  that  Norderud  found  him 
when  a  few  days  later  he  requested  him  to  bear  him  com 
pany  to  the  church,  where  he  would  have  an  opportunity 
to  show  his  skill  as  a  musician. 

"  I  have  bought  an  organ  for  the  church,  lately,"  said 
Norderud,  as  they  started  out  together.  "  And  I  thought 
that  I  ought  to  have  the  right,  too,  to  appoint  the  organist. 
I  proposed  you,  but  the  pastor  had  another  candidate,  and 
we  had  some  unpleasant  squabbling  about  it  in  the  trus 
tees'  meeting  yesterday.  The  end  of  it  was  that  another 
meeting  was  appointed  for  to-night,  and  a  competition 
between  the  candidates  will  decide  the  result.  The 
salary  is  not  much,  but  it  is  enough  to  give  you  a  fail- 
start.  The  trustees  and  part  of  the  congregation  are 
probably  waiting  for  you  now." 

Einar  felt  a  sudden  flutter  running  through  him  at  this 
startling  announcement.  He  stopped  abruptly  under 
one  of  those  green-stemmed  elm-trees  whose  crown.-,  like 
colonnades  with  interlacing  arches,  lined  the  street,  and 
gazed  excitedly  at  his  companion. 

"  But  why  have  you  not  told  me  before?"  exclaimed 
he.  "I  may  only  disgrace  you  now.  I  have  had  no  time 
to  practice-?' 

"  Never  mind,"  answered  the  other,  in  his  imperturba- 


A  MUSICAL  BATTLE.  47 

ble  bass.  "  You  said  yon  had  had  considerable  practice. 
If  you  do  your  best,  it  is  all  that  will  be  expected  of  you. 
If  this  fails,  we  shall  have  to  iind  something  else." 

It  was  useless  to  expostulate  with  one  so  inaccessible  to 
reason.  Norderud  appeared  to  him  like  a  creature  of  a 
different  genus,  whose  modes  of  thought  were  utterly  alien 
to  his  own.  He  heard  the  church  bells  calling  the  people 
together,  and  their  clear,  strong  notes  vibrated  through 
the  summer  air  and  through  his  own  nerves,  calling  up  to 
his  Norse  fancy  all  manner  of  solemn  associations  from 
the  days  of  his  childhood,  when  other  bells  had  drawn  his 
reluctant  feet  to  the  house  of  worship  in  a  distant  land, 
or  on  week-days  had  stirred  him  with  vague  apprehension 
as  they  gathered  the  black  throngs  of  mourners  about 
some  freshly  opened  grave.  With  this  dim  agitation  fill 
ing  his  mind,  Einar  made  his  way  through  the  groups  of 
blonde-headed  men  and  women  who  had  gathered  on  the 
front  steps  of  the  church,  and  in  Norderud'fi  company  en 
tered  the  plain,  square  edifice. 

Ilardanger,  since  the  boundary  of  civilization  had  long 
passed  it  on  its  westward  way,  was  at  present  a  place 
where  stirring  events  were  of  rare  occurrence,  and  where, 
consequently,  so  slight  a  thing  as  the  contest  between  two 
aspirants  for  an  organist's  place  assumed  an  air  of  grave 
significance.  The  Indian  fights  had  long  been  forgotten, 
the  Vigilance  Committee,  with  its  brief  and  dramatic 
existence,  had  already  passed  into  mythical  history,  and 
the  settlement  was  either  too  civilized  or  not  civilized 
enough  to  have  matrimonial  scandals  to  feed  the  public 
need  of  excitement. 

Einar,  blindly  following  Norderud's  guidance,  passed 
rapidly  np  the  aisle  of  the  church,  throwing,  as  he  went, 
a  hasty  glance  at  the  simply  attired  men  and  women  who 


48  FALCONBERG. 

filled  the  pews.  He  was,  in  spite  of  his  agitation,  dimly 
conscious  that  he  must  appear  like  a  very  distinguished 
figure  amid  this  rustic  crowd. 

The  structure  of  the  church  was  the  plainest  possible 
imitation  of  the  venerable  basilica  style ;  a  long  rectan 
gular  nave  with  uncarpeted  floor  and  two  rows  of  somber- 
tinted  pews,  an  apse  hedged  in  by  a  rudely  carved  wooden 
railing,  and  containing  a  square  altar  covered  with  a  red 
velvet  cloth,  and  on  the  wall  opposite  a  gallery  above 
which  the  organ  loomed  up  toward  a  white  stuccoed  ceiling. 

Norderud  stopped  and  talked  in  a  low  voice  to  a  gray- 
haired  man  in  one  of  the  pews  and  his  protege  remained 
standing  in  the  aisle,  feeling  somewhat  uncomfortable 
under  the  noiseless  bombardment  of  critical  glances  which 
were  leveled  at  him  from  all  sides  of  the  church.  A 
white  mist  hovered  before  his  eyes  and  even  the  nearest 
objects  appeared  indistinctly  remote.  It  was  a  great  re 
lief  when  finally  his  guide,  whose  whispering  seemed  to 
have  no  end,  took  his  arm  and  led  him  up  the  winding 
staircase  to  the  organ.  He  sat  down  and  opened  at  ran 
dom  a  book  of  sacred  music  which  was  placed  on  the 
stand  before  him.  Glancing  at  the  fly-leaf  he  read  the 
name  "Helga  Haven  "' written  in  a  clear  feminine  hand. 
He  turned  over  a  couple  of  leaves  until  his  eye  was  ar 
rested  by  the  words,  "  As  the  Hart  pants  after  the  Water- 
Brooks."  It  was  a  simple  arrangement  by  Spohr  ;  an  air 
with  which  he  had  long  been  familiar.  He  struck  the 
first  chords  and  all  the  volume  of  latent  excitement  which 
had  been  laboring  confusedly  within  him  seemed  to  shoot 
in  a  clear,  swiftly  gathered  current  through  his  nerves 
and  to  be  tingling  out  through  the  tips  of  his  fingers. 
The  melody  rolled  away  in  great  free  waves,  filling  the 
air  or  transforming  it  into  living  and  pulsating  masses  of 


A  MUSICAL  BATTLE.  49 

sound.  And  it  filled  Einar's  soul,  too  ;  with  every  new 
measure,  as  the  tones  poured  out  their  intense  life  upon 
him,  he  lost  all  sense  of  dependence  upon  the  composer 
and  sailed  along  rapturously  upon  the  strong  tide  of 
melody  which  seemed  to  be  rising  from  some  deep  well- 
spring  of  his  own  being.  As  he  reached  the  bottom  of 
the  page  and  flung  forth  the  last  full-toned  chords  in  a 
triumphant  staccato,  he  threw  a  quick  glance  behind  him 
and  saw  a  throng  of  eager  upturned  faces  gazing  up  to 
him  in  breathless  wonder.  His  fingers  half  unconsciously 
lingered  on  the  keys,  then  wandered  away  with  rapid 
transitions  into  a  fervid  minor  movement,  touching  the 
theme  remotely,  and  again  gathering  it  with  tender  grad 
ations  into  a  full-swelling  focus  of  sound.  Thus  he  sat — 
he  knew  not  how  long — wrapt  in  this  joyful  melodious 
monologue,  merely  obeying  the  tuneful  promptings  of  his 
own  nature,  when  the  thought  suddenly  struck  him  that 
his  rival,  whom  he  had  quite  forgotten,  was  probably 
awaiting  with  impatience  the  end  of  his  improvisations. 
So  he  dropped  one  by  one  the  more  complex  accessories 
of  thought  in  the  variations,  turned  on  the  full  force  of 
the  organ  and  ended  with  a  slow,  full  movement  of  sim 
ple  solemnity. 

As  he  arose  he  saw  border ud  standing  at  his  side  look 
ing  down  upon  the  audience  below  with  an  air-  of  trium 
phant  satisfaction. 

"  If  you  will  play  like  that  to  us  every  Sunday ,"  said 
he,  turning  to  Einar,  while  his  slow  smile  spread  over  his 
features,  "  1  will  add  a  hundred  dollars  to  your  salary, 
and  say  <  thank  you  '  in  the  bargain.  There  is  no  man 
in  this  town,  or  woman  either  for  that  matter,  who  can 
beat  you,  and  the  little  Raven  might  just  as  well  throw 
up  hor  hand  at  once." 


50  FALCONBERG. 

Einar  hardly  gathered  the  full  meaning  of  this  allusion 
to  "  the  little  Raven,"  and  in  the  joyful  agitation  of  the 
moment  did  not  think  of  connecting  it  with  the  name  he 
had  read  on  the  fly -leaf  of  the  music-book.  He  tried  hard 
to  show  an  unperturbed  countenance,  but  could  not,  in 
spite  of  all  his  efforts,  prevent  the  pleasure  he  felt  at  this 
first  manifestation  of  approval,  on  Norderud's  part,  from 
imparting  a  vivider  flush  of  animation  to  his  mobile  fea 
tures.  He  was  dimly  ashamed  of  the  emotion  he  experi 
enced,  and  in  the  momentary  need  of  some  outward 
movement  to  give  vent  to  his  inward  tumult  began  to 
stroke  his  thick  blonde  beard  which  he  had  allowed  to 
grow  unchecked  since  the  day  he  left  his  home. 

"  I  shall  wait  until  Miss  Raven  has  played  before  intro 
ducing  you  to  the  pastor,"  whispered  Norderud.  "  Look, 
there  they  are  both  coming!  You  needn't  mind,  if  he 
shows  you  his  teeth  and  growls  a  little  at  you.  His  humor 
is  probably  somewhat  overcast.  He  is  aware  beforehand 
that  he  is  defeated." 

Einar  turned  his  head  quickly  and  saw  at  the  top  of  the 
stairs  a  burly,  middle-aged  gentleman  with  a  large  massive 
head,  cold  gray  eyes  and  close-trimmed  grayish  side-whis 
kers.  His  broad  form  moved  aside  slowly  as  if  it  were  a 
somber  back  curtain  in  a  theater  revealing  some  warmly 
flushed  scene  of  beauty  behind ;  for  following  close  in 
his  footsteps  carne  a  tall,  slenderly  built  young  girl. 
Einar  strained  his  eye  and  could  hardly  suppress  an  ex 
clamation  of  wonder.  She  sprang  upon  his  vision  like  a 
sudden  rush  of  mellow,  fragrant  air  on  a  chill  spring  day ; 
her  very  apparition  seemed  to  be  a  mysterious  appeal  to 
some  higher,  darkly  divined  plane  of  his  being,  and  a 
quick  pang  darted  through  him  at  the  thought  that  his 
own  late  triumph  must  be  her  defeat,  and  perhaps  a  cruel 


A  MUSICAL  BATTLE.  51 

frustration  of  her  long-cherished  and  well-founded  hope. 
The  sight  of  youth  and  beauty  naturally  awakens  all  the 
generous  impulses  of  a  man's  heart ;  and  Einar,  to  whom 
the  love  of  gain  had  been  utterly  alien  as  a  motive  of  ac 
tion,  now  felt  his  joy  blended  with  bitterness.  He  in 
wardly  reproached  Norderud  for  not  having  told  him  that 
his  rival  was  a  lady,  and  he  reproached  himself,  too,  for 
having  heedlessly  and  ignorantly  rushed  into  a  contest 
which  his  sense  of  chivalry  would  have  shown  him  to  be 
unequal. 

The  young  lady,  in  the  meanwhile,  had  taken  her  seat 
at  the  organ,  and  Einar  had,  from  where  he  stood,  a  good 
opportunity  to  admire  her  at  his  -leisure.  She  crossed  her 
hands  listlessly  in  her  lap,  and  as  the  pastor  stationed 
himself  behind  her,  raised  her  large,  candid  eyes  to  his 
with  a  look  of  irresistible  appeal.  But  the  pastor  shook 
his  head  and  raised  his  hand  deprecating! j,  then  bent 
down  and  whispered  something  in  her  ear. 

"  It  would  be  a  mere  farce,  Mr.  Falconberg,"  she  re 
plied,  in  an  intense  undertone ;  "  all  I  could  do  would  be 
to  furnish  a  somber  background  upon  which  his  magnifi 
cent  performance  would  stand  out  in  more  ^brilliant  relief. 
And  you  will  admit  that  would  be  rather  an  extraordinary 
generosity  toward  an  enemy." 

"  Don't  be  a  goose,  Helga,"  grumbled  the  pastor,  im 
patiently.  u  Not  this  excessive  modesty,  pray.  Remem 
ber  it  is  a  serious  affair  both  to  you  and  your  mother,  and 
it  is  a  Christian  duty  on  your  part  to  put  your  foolish 
pride  in  your  pocket." 

Einar  stood  near  enough  to  hear  every  word  that  was 
said,  and  he  swore  in  his  heart  that  his  reverend  uncle 
was  a  brute.  How  could  he  assume  this  censorious  tone 
of  reprehension  toward  a  creature  so  marvelously  com- 


52  FALCOXDERG. 

plete,  so  absolutely  adorable  ?  His  generous  indignation, 
however,  made  him  quite  forget  that  his  own  attitude 
was  becoming  every  moment  more  conspicuous,  and  that 
hundreds  of  curious  eyes  were  just  then  directed  toward 
him.  His  gaze  dwelt  upon  Miss  Raven  with  a  full  un 
thinking  intensity,  of  which  she  was  instinctively  con 
scious,  although  her  own  eyes  were  staring  with  a  dimmed 
intentness  at  the  opening  bars  of  the  fugue  she  had 
selected  to  play.  The  superb  lines  of  her  head,  with  all 
its  sunny  northern  splendor,  recalled  vividly  to  Einar  the 
image  which  his  boyish  fancy  had  created  of  Ingeborg 
when  he  read  TegneYs  "  Frithjof's  Saga."  Her  lustrous 
yellow  hair  was  gathered  behind  in  a  single  massive  knot, 
from  which  the  bright  curls  rippled  downward  with  a 
lusty  luxuriance  of  growth.  The  clear  brow,  the  delicate, 
sensitive  nose,  the  line  of  whose  bridge  approached  the 
parallel  to  that  of  the  forehead,  the  pure  curves  of  the 
lips,  and  the  finely  balanced  chin,  were  all  in  their  way 
magnificent  pieces  of  modeling,  but  nevertheless  seemed 
unimpressed  with  the  stamp  of  any  strong,  or,  at  least, 
easily  legible  individuality.  In  their  capacity  for  expres 
sion,  Einar  thought,  they  were  positively  boundless;  in 
their  plastic  completeness  they  were  simply  divine. 
Imagine  this  countenance  breathed  upon  by  some  vivify 
ing  passion,  and — what  need  afterward  of  declaiming 
about  ideals  ?  They  were  once  for  all  within  reach. 
Thus  ran  the  Norseman's  reflections ;  he  had  hitherto 
conscientiously  disbelieved  in  love  at  first  sight,  but  he 
found  in  this  instant  that  he  had  come  to  the  end  of  his 
philosophy. 

Miss  Raven  raised  her  hands  from  her  lap — they  were 
hands  of  a  firm,  delicate-lined  purity — and  put  her  fingers 
on  the  keys  of  the  organ.  She  began  abruptly,  traveling 


A  MUSICAL  BATTLE.  53 

with  a  cold  precision  of  touch  through  the  long,  solemn 
avenues  of  tone,  following  the  often  intricate  unfolding 
of  the  musical  phrase  with  a  delightfully  distinct  articu 
lation,  and  with  here  and  there  a  flush  of  warmer  coloring, 
when  the  composer  rose  above  his  common  key  of  deep, 
devout  meditation  into  a  more  impassioned  strain  of  en 
treaty.  The  pastor  stood  frowning  behind  her,  and  could 
hardly  restrain  his  growing  impatience.  Again  and  again 
he  pulled  his  red-and-yellow  silk  handkerchief  from  his 
pocket  and  wiped  the  perspiration  from  his  forehead  with 
a  greater  elaboration  of  gesture  than  so  simple  an  opera 
tion  seemed  to  demand,  and  when  Miss  Raven  had  at 
length  finished,  apparently  as  abruptly  as  she  had  begun, 
he  once  more  bent  over  her,  and  said  quite  audibly  and 
with  a  touch  of  irritation  in  his  voice : 

"  My  dear,  I  certainly  credited  you  with  more  sense 
than  you  have  shown  on  this  occasion.  Do  you  suppose 
these  peasants  have  the  patience  to  follow  you  on  these 
mile-long,  rambling  tirades  ?  What  do  they  understand 
of  Bach  and  all  his  long-winded  sentiment?  You-might 
with  equal  profit  talk  Hebrew  to  a  babe.  Well,  you  cer 
tainly  cannot  blame  me.  I  warned  you  beforehand.  I 
told  you  not  to  try  to  shoot  over  their  heads." 

"  No  one  will  ever  think  of  blaming  you,  Mr.  Falcon- 
berg,"  answered  she,  lifting  again  that  simple,  earnest 
glance  of  hers  to  her  officious  persecutor.  "  I  thank  you 
for  your  good  advice,  but  prefer  to  bear  the  responsibility 
for  my  own  actions." 

"  You  are  a  very  headstrong  little  creature,"  murmured 
the  pastor,  with  a  somewhat  forced  attempt  at  playfulness. 
"  Come,  let  rne  conduct  you  out  through  this  crowd.  You 
will  probably  not  care  to  stay  and  listen  to  the  delibera 
tions  of  the  board  of  trustees." 


54  ffALCONBERG. 

She  pulled  up  the  light  summer  shawl  which  she  had 
allowed  to  glide  down  below  her  waist  while  she  was 
playing,  gave  one  grand  toss  of  her  golden  coronet  of  locks 
and  let  them  shower  down  on  the  outside  of  the  shawl. 
The  simple,  unconscious  grace  of  her  motions  as  she  arose, 
took  the  music-book  from  the  stand  and  departed  leaning 
on  the  pastor's  arm,  impressed  Einar  even  more  than  the 
marvelous  beauty  of  her  face.  He  stood  still,  gazing  with 
a  supreme  heedlessness  of  appearances  toward  the  stair 
case  where  she  had  vanished,  when  Norderud  came  up 
and  grasped  him  somewhat  ungently  by  the  arm. 

"Come,"  said  he,  "I  want  you  to  talk  to  the  pastor, 
before  the  meeting  of  the  board.  No  one  knows  what 
effect  that  may  have." 

"  Mr.  Norderud,"  began  Einar,  feeling  in  the  afterglow 
of  his  excitement  equal  to  anything  in  the  way  of  heroic 
self-sacrifice,  "  I  am  sorry  to  be  obliged  to  tell  you  that  I 
cannot  consent  to  accept  the  position  which  possibly  your 
generous  efforts  have  procured  me.  My  sense  of  chiv 
alry » 

"  OL,  bosh  ! "  interrupted  the  farmer  gruffly,  "  If  you 
are  determined  to  act  like  a  fool  don't  imagine  that  you 
can  make  me  one.  And  I  warn  you  not  to  talk  to  Mr. 
Falconberg  about  your  sense  of  chivalry  and  that  sort  of 
twaddle.  To-morrow  you  may  do  and  say  what  you 
choose,  but  to-day  I  insist  upon  your  doing  as  I  tell 
you." 

Einar  made  no  answer ;  a  wide  gulf  seemed  suddenly 
to  separate  him  from  his  imperious  benefactor,  who  would 
force  his  services  upon  him  against  his  will ;  and  at  the 
same  time  he  could  not  suppress  a  sense  of  pity  as  for  a 
creature  made  of  coarser  clay  who  was  incapable  of  com 
prehending  the  loftier  motives  which  inspired  his  actions. 


A  MUSICAL  BATTLE.  55 

It  would,  no  doubt,  have  surprised  him  if  he  had  known 
that  Norderud  from  the  height  of  his  practical  intellect 
felt  a  very  similar  stirring  of  paternal  compassion  for  him, 
as  a  young  enthusiast  who  was  too  hopelessly  deficient  in 
common  sense  to  understand  what  was  for  his  own  interest. 

In  the  vestibule  which  divided  the  body  of  the  church 
from  the  street,  they  found  the  portly  pastor  looming  up 
beside  a  small,  bald-headed  gentleman  with  a  thick  blonde 
mustache  and  a  pair  of  mild  blue  eyes  peering  forth 
through  his  round  horn-bowed  spectacles. 

"  Ah,  my  young  friend,"  broke  forth  the  pastor,  extend 
ing  his  hand  to  Einar  without  awaiting  an  introduction ; 
"  What  miracle  of  heaven  can  have  induced  a  youthful 
Orpheus  like  you  to  emigrate  from  his  Thracian  home  and 
take  up  his  abode  in  this  unmelodious  wilderness  ?  Allow 
me  to  make  you  acquainted  with  my  friend  Doctor  Van 
Flint.  Mr.  Finiison — Doctor  Van  Flint.  The  doctor  was 
just  growing  dithyrambic  at  the  prospect  of  pressing 
your  musical  eloquence  into  the  service  of  religion  and 
humanity,  and  I  confess  I  was  doing  my  best  to  restrain 
him." 

A  slight  shiver  ran  through  Einar's  frame  at  the  sound 
of  his  uncle's  voice.  A  host  of  remote  memories  rushed 
back  upon  him,  and  the  past  seemed  to  lift  its  warning 
finger  against  him  threatening  disclosure  and  inevitable 
disgrace.  The  pastor  bore  a  very  strong  resemblance  to 
his  father,  of  whom,  indeed,  he  seemed  to  be  a  somewhat 
coarser  and  cheaper  edition.  He  did  not  possess  the 
bishop's  cautious  refinement  of  bearing,  and  the  capacious 
comfortableness  of  his  attire  was  far  removed  from  the 
scrupulous  elegance  which  distinguished  his  more  pros 
perous  brother.  But  his  large  massively  hewn  features, 
although  lacking  as  it  were  the  finishing  polish,  were  still 


56  FALCONBERO. 

molded  after  the  same  type,  and  his  ponderous  frame 
rejoiced  in  the  same  imposing  development  of  front  and 
the  same  sacerdotal  pomponsness  which  the  Evangelical 
prelates  of  Norway  have  inherited  from  their  Catholic 
predecessors.  He  talked  with  a  certain  sonorous  magnifi 
cence  and  with  an  over-conscientious  articulation  as  if  he 
delighted  in  the  sound  of  his  own  voice  and  was  deter 
mined  to  make  the  most  of  it. 

Einar  hardly  knew  how  to  define  the  impression  his 
uncle  made  upon  him.  He  disliked  the  patronizing  un 
ceremoniousness  with  which  he  treated  him,  but  still  felt 
vaguely  drawn  toward  him  by  a  mysterious  sense  of  kin 
ship  which  he  dared  neither  admit  nor  openly  deny.  He 
therefore  silently  shook  his  hand  and  then  turned  toward 
Doctor  Van  Flint,  whom  he  briefly  thanked  for  his  good 
opinion  of  his  music. 

"  My  dear  sir,"  said  the  little  doctor  in  a  low  contented 
voice  which  fell  very  pleasantly  upon  the  ear,  like  the 
gurgling  of  hidden  waters,  "  there  was  a  wealth  of  rhythm 
and  melody  in  your  play  which  fairly  startled  me.  Brage* 
must  have  showered  his  gifts  upon  your  cradle.  All  the 
time  while  I  listened  to  your  play  I  was  haunted  with 
visions  of  St.  Peter's  with  the  papal  choir,  and  Leipzic 
with  its  Gewandhaus  concerts — in  short,  all  the  tuneful 
memories  of  my  youth  came  rushing  in  upon  me." 

"  Our  doctor,  you  will  observe,  is  given  to  hyperbole," 
remarked  Falconberg,  giving  his  friend  a  patronizing  pat 
on  the  shoulder.  "  But  I  do  admit  that  even  the  young 
David  playing  to  the  original  Philistines  could  not  have 
made  half  so  favorable  an  impression  as  you,  beleaguer 
ing  the  ears  of  these  modern  representatives  of  that  wor- 

*  The  god  of  music  and  poetry  in  the  Scandinavian  mythology. 


A  MUSICAL  BATTLE.  57 

thy  race.  But,  permit  me  as  a  friend  to  whisper  some 
thing  in  your  ear — purgatam  aurem  as  Horace  calls  it. 
Don't  be  too  confident.  Musical  impressions  are  prover 
bially  evanescent.  And  now  I  believe  we  have  exhausted 
two  mythologies  besides  the  Bible  in  order  to  express  our 
admiration  of  your  performance.  Even  if  it  brings  you 
no  further  advantage,  you  ought  to  be  satisfied." 

"  I  deeply  regret,  Mr.  Pastor,"  replied  Einar,  gravely, 
"  that  in  spite  of  your  kind  words  you  are  half  forced  to 
look  upon  me  as  a  very  inconvenient  if  not  positively  hos 
tile  phenomenon.  I  assure  you  that  if  I  had  known  that 
my  rival  for  this  position  was  a  young  lady,  and  besides  a 
protegee  of  yours " 

"  Mr.  Finnson  means  to  say,"  peremptorily  interrupted 
Norderud,  whose  presence  the  pastor  had  hitherto  ignored, 
"  that  if  I  had  not  deemed  it  best  to  say  nothing  about  this 
whole  affair  to  him  he  might  have  had  time  to  practice 
and  might  consequently  have  done  still  better." 

"  Well,  well,  young  man,"  said  Falconberg  without 
heeding  Norderud's  interruption,  "  we  will  not  quarrel 
about  that.  Every  one  is  nearest  to  himself  and  in  your 
case  I  should  probably  have  acted  very  much  as  you 
have." 

Once  more  he  shook  his  nephew's  hand  and  retired  to 
the  vestry  followed  by  Norderud.  The  doctor  and  Einar 
walked  down  the  street  together,  both  warming  up  gradu 
ally  to  a  consciousness  that  they  were  mightily  pleased 
with  each  other. 

"  If  you  have  nothing  better,"  said  Yan  Flint,  when, 
after  fifteen  minutes'  walk  they  reached  a  garden  where 
tulips,  crocuses  and  other  flowers  of  fervid  bloom  flung 
forth  a  great  blaze  of  color  toward  the  pale-tinted  sky, 
"  I  hope  you  will  do  me  the  honor  to  spend  this  evening 
3* 


&S  FALCONBERO. 

with  me.  A  cup  of  tea,  a  cigar — well,  you  must  know  by 
this  time  what  our  wilderness  has  to  offer." 

The  doctor  opened  his  gate  and  they  sauntered  along 
the  graveled  paths  toward  a  small  house  built  in  the  Swiss 
cottage  style,  which  seemed  to  be  struggling  like  a  Lao- 
coon  in  the  leafy  embrace  of  two  huge  woodbines. 

Late  in  the  evening  Norderud  called  and  announced 
that  the  organist's  place  belonged  to  Einar. 


CHAPTER  Y. 

SCHOLAR    IN   THE   WILDERNESS. 

THREE  days  after  Einar  had  made  his  debut  as  an  or 
ganist,  he  was  pleasantly  surprised  by  an  offer  from  Doc 
tor  Van  Flint,  whom  he  had  seen  daily  in  the  intervening 
time,  to  take  at  a  very  moderate  rent  a  couple  of  furnished 
rooms  in  the  upper  story  of  the  latter's  house.  He  cor 
dially  expressed  his  sense  of  obligation  to  the  Norderuds 
and  henceforth  became  an  inmate  of  the  doctor's  family. 

Among  the  many  riddles  which  the  young  settlement 
had  been  called  upon  to  solve  in  the  process  of  its  growth, 
the  case  of  Doctor  Van  Flint  was  not  the  least  exaspera 
ting.  It  seemed  very  hard  to  conjecture  what  could  have 
induced  a  man  whose  tastes  and  the  whole  tenor  of  whose 
mind  had  manifestly  fashioned  him  for  a  life  in  a  large 
and  intellectually  animated  society  to  take  up  his  abode 
among  the  crude  pioneers  on  the  western  border  of  civili 
zation.  The  village  matrons,  among  whom  the  voice  of 
Mrs.  Falconberg,  the  pastor's  wife,  was  the  loudest,  as 
serted  that  an  unrequited  passion  had  turned  all  the 
sources  of  his  being  into  bitterness,  and  made  him  seek 
oblivion  far  away  from  the  scenes  which  must  have  stung 
his  heart  with  their  ever  fresh  memories  and  kept  open 
the  wound  of  his  sorrow.  The  pastor,  and  many  other 
male  skeptics  with  him,  laughed  at  this  beautiful  theory, 
which  would  have  been  plausible  enough  if  the  doctor 


CO  FALCONBERG. 

had  at  all  been  that  compound  of  condensed  bitterness 
which  romantic  matrons  fondly  believed  him  to  be.  He 
was,  it  is  true,  somewhat  pessimistic  in  his  views  of 
women  and  politics ;  both  of  which,  however,  exerted  a 
potent  fascination  over  him,  and  were  his  favorite  themes 
of  conversation. 

The  doctor  was  understood  to  belong  to  a  very  promi 
nent  family  in  the  East  which  had  played  a  not  unim 
portant  part  in  the  revolutionary  history  of  the  country. 
His  father  had  been  a  genuine  type  of  the  provincial 
patriot  who  believes  in  home  patronage,  political  as  well 
as  industrial.  He  had  delivered  many  a  stirring  apos 
trophe  to  the  American  eagle  on  the  anniversaries  of  the 
national  independence  ;  had  dressed  himself  and  his  fam-, 
ily  in  home-manufactured  goods,  and  had  disbelieved 
with  equal  vehemence  in  Old  World  despotism  and  Paris 
millinery.  His  active  patriotism  had  made  him  a  stanch 
defender  of  the  protective  tariff  system  and  the  possessor 
of  a  large  calico-printing  establishment.  Pie  had  spent 
his  days  in  excessive  toil,  laboring  with  a  breathless  eager 
ness  for  the  extension  of  his  business,  and  had  died  a  pre 
mature  death,  leaving  a  very  handsome  estate  to  his  three 
sons,  who,  in  their  turn  (with  one  exception)  grew  rich 
and  dyspeptic,  and  promised  fair  to  transmit,  incased  in 
hard-earned  gold,  the  sad  lesson  of  their  lives  to  a  new 
generation  of  descendants. 

Hiram  Van  Flint,  although  reared  in  an  atmosphere  so 
uncongenial  to  scholarship,  had  early  contracted  a  love  of 
reading,  a  strong  distaste  for  what  his  father  termed 
"  practical  life,"  and  a  reverence  which  almost  amounted 
to  a  religion  for  the  abstract  pursuit  of  knowledge  for  its 
own  sake.  He  had  been  born  with  the  tastes  and  instincts 
of  a  scholar,  and  had,  from  his  bookish  seclusion,  passed 


A  SCHOLAR  IN  THE  WILDERNESS.  61 

his  silent  criticisms  upon  the  blindly  zealous  and  hurried 
lives  of  those,  who,  from  their  imagined  elevation,  had 
pitied  him  as  an  impractical  enthusiast  and  dreamer.  He 
had  long  looked  with  eager  eyes  toward  that  land  of 
promise  beyond  the  sea,  and  as  soon  as  his  father's  death 
gave  him  pecuniary  independence,  he  immediately  em 
barked  for  England,  and  after  a  sojourn  of  several  years 
in  Italy,  France  and  Germany,  took  up  his  residence  at 
one  of  the  Swedish  universities,  where  he  discovered  a 
new  and  then  almost  untrodden  field  of  research  in  the 
ancient  literature  of  the  Scandinavian  race.  Having 
reached  the  age  of  thirty  he  returned  to  Germany  with  a 
very  extensive  plan  for  a  work  on  old  Norse  literature, 
and  had  just  taken  his  degree  of  Philosophic®  Doctor  at 
the  University  of  Leipzic  when  pecuniary  embarrassments 
forced  him  to  turn  his  face  once  more  toward  America. 
He  managed  to  save  enough  of  his  fortune  to  enable  him 
to  live  without  excessive  economy,  and  having  by  this 
time  become  thoroughly  possessed  with  the  idea  of  the 
work  which  was  to  sanctify  to  a  nobler  purpose  a  hitherto 
aimless  existence,  he  came  to  look  upon  all  other  issues 
as  merely  accessory  to  this  one  absorbing  purpose.  With 
a  view  to  supplementing  his  fragmentary  knowledge  by 
the  constant  study  of  customs,  manners  and  modes  of 
thought  among  the  modern  representatives  of  the  Viking 
race,  he  made  frequent  journeys  through  the  Norse  set 
tlements  in  the  West,  and,  liking  the  people  well,  was  at 
last  induced  to  take  up  his  permanent  abode  among  them. 
He  then  built  his  vine-sheltered  little  cottage  in  the  town 
of  Hardanger,  and,  while  dividing  himself  with  impartial 
zeal  between  the  pastor's  autocratic  ecclesiasticism  and 
Norderud's  extreme  democracy,  gathered  up  golden  stores 
of  material  for  his  "History  of  Old  Norse  Literature." 


62  FALCONBERO. 

A  maiden  aunt  who,  in  her  unlettered  simplicity,  had 
always  looked  up  to  him  as  the  shining  light  of  the  fam 
ily,  had  followed  him  into  his  Western  seclusion,  and  in 
the  capacity  of  a  housekeeper  stealthily  removed  from 
his  path  those  little  perturbations  which  are  apt  to  mar 
the  happiness  of  a  scholarly  bachelor. 

Einar's  arrival  had  been  a  perfect  Godsend  to  Dr.  Yan 
Flint,  and  the  doctor's  companionship  was  no  less  welcome 
to  Einar.  An  erudite  and  agreeable  young  Norseman, 
and,  moreover,  a  university  man,  was  the  very  thing  which 
the  doctor  had  always  felt  the  need  of,  as  a  kind  of  ideal 
representative  of  his  future  public,  by  the  light  of  whose 
sympathetic  knowledge  he  might  test  his  more  daring 
theories,  and  whose  cooler  judgment  might  restrain  him 
when  he  was  tempted  to  soar  above  the  solid  earth  of  fact. 
To  Einar,  apart  from  any  material  advantage,  the  newness 
of  Van  Flint's  personality  and  the  rich,  mellow  evenness 
of  his  temper,  made  it  easier  to  begin  that  ideal  career 
which  in  the  first  moment  of  reviving  strength  he  had 
marked  out  for  himself ;  with  him  it  seemed  easier  to 
forget  the  sombre  background  of  life  and  to  build  a  fair 
structure  of  hope  into  a  cloudless  future. 

One  afternoon,  as  the  young  exile  returned  from  the 
church  where  he  had  been  practicing,  he  found  his  host 
kneeling  on  the  ground  before  one  of  the  flower-beds  with 
a  large  paper  spread  out  before  him.  A  curly  wreath  of 
light  hair  which  encircled  the  back  of  his  head  from  one 
temple  to  the  other  fell  in  straggling  locks  beneath  the 
brim  of  his  white  Panama  hat,  and  his  round,  good-na 
tured  face  wore  an  air  of  profound  abstraction. 

"  If  I  am  not  disturbing  you,  Doctor,  is  that  a  map  of 
Iceland  you  have  there  ?  "  asked  Einar,  pausing,  with  his 
thumbs  in  his  vest  pockets,  before  his  eccentric  friend. 


A  SVBOLA8  /#  THE  WILDERNESS.  63 

"  Finnson,  ah  ?  "  exclaimed  Van  Flint,  after  having 
gazed  at  the  Norseman  for  some  moments  with  a  look  of 
but  partial  recognition.  "  No,  it  is  not  a  map  of  Iceland. 
It  is,  on  the  contrary,  a  map  of  this  flower-bed ;  but,  as 
you  will  observe,  its  shape  is  exactly  that  of  the  Saga- 
isle." 

"  Not  exactly  symmetrical,  I  should  say,  for  a  flower 
bed." 

"  No  ;  I  admit  it  is  not  a  thing  of  beauty,"  replied  the 
doctor,  rising  and  whipping  the  dust  off  his  knees  with  his 
handkerchief — "  that  is,  as  far  as  the  form  is  concerned. 
It  was  originally  merely  a  whim  of  mine,  but  it  proved 
more  fascinating  than  I  had  anticipated.  Here  you  see 
all  the  localities  mentioned  in  that  broad-breasted,  storm- 
voiced,  large-molded  tragedy,  'Njals-Saga,'  marked  out 
and  symbolically  indicated.  I  am  not  naturally  over-fond 
of  symbolism,  but  in  this  case,  you  will  find  that  it  has  its 
excuse  for  being.  There  you  will  notice,  for  instance,  the 
plains  of  Thingvalla,  bounded  by  four  carnations — two 
white,  and  two  scarlet.  It  was  there  where  the  quarrels 
of  Norsemen  were  settled,  either  by  the  white  passionless 
verdict  of  the  law,  or  by  the  more  deep-tinged  decision  of 
the  sword.  Here  at  Lithend  grows  Halgerda, — a  fiercely 
flaming  tiger-lily,  in  her  baleful  beauty, — and  I  have  for 
want  of  anything  better  made  the  sage,  cool-headed  Njal 
at  Bergthorsknoll  a  hoary,  bloomless,  everlasting,  thrown 
into  picturesque  relief  by  his  crimson-petaled  wife,  Berg- 
thora,  in  whom  the  blood  runs  with  more  passionate  vigor. 
Here  is  Fiddle  Mord  in  the  Rangrivervale,  here  Hausk- 
uldstede,  etc.  Now,  if  I  read  that  Skarpheddin  rode 
from  Bergthorsknoll  to  Fleetlithe,  I  know  exactly  what 
road  he  took,  I  know  what  houses  he  passed,  and  know 
ing  his  feuds  and  friendships,  I  can  imagine,  with  tolera- 


64:  FALCONBERG. 

ble  correctness,  what  was  Skarphed din's  state  of  mind  on 
this  or  that  point  of  the  journey,  and  I  can  conclude  very 
nearly  how  he  looked.  Ecce,  I  have  spoken." 

Einar  had  not  learned  yet  that  the  doctor  was  capable 
of  soliloquizing  in  the  most  picturesque  phraseology  and 
with  a  kind  of  absent-minded  vehemence,  which,  some 
how,  made  him  very  attractive  upon  any  theme  touching 
the  history  of  the  ancient  Norsemen.  Neither  had  he 
learned  that  his  friend  always  took  interruptions  good- 
naturedly,  remembering  for  the  moment  nothing  beyond 
the  vivid  visions  which  inspired  his  eloquence ;  if  sud 
denly  checked,  he  would  throw  puzzled  glances  about 
him,  and  then  as  his  actual  consciousness  overmastered 
the  arctic  visions,  laugh  retrospectively  at  his  own  ardor. 

"  Who  but  you,  Doctor,"  remarked  Einar,  "  could  have 
invested  a  dry,  bloodless  science  like  geography  with  such 
a  brilliancy  of  color  ?  " 

"  My  friend,"  rejoined  the  other,  with  energy,  "  the 
geography  of  the  Saga  is,  literally  speaking,  anything  but 
bloodless.  You  cannot  point  to  a  single  place  which  has 
not  its  legend  of  blood.  Look  over  there  !  There  is  the 
scene  of  the  Orkneyinga  Saga,  with  its  brother-feuds  and 
the  murders  of  the  Earls ;  over  yonder  I  have  a  similar 
illustration  of  the  Fareyinga  Saga,  the  scene  of  the  life 
and  death  of  that  large-souled  hero,  Sigmund  Bresteson. 
If  all  this  is  child's  play,  as  you  may  possibly  think,  it  has 
at  least  the  advantage  that  it  gives  me  the  exercise  I  need, 
and,  moreover,  keeps  my  favorite  study  before  my  mind, 
when  otherwise  I  should  be  bored." 

The  doctor  rolled  up  his  chart  with  a  most  affectionate 
touch,  and  marched  at  Einar's  side  to  the  piazza,  where 
they  lighted  their  cigars  and  sat  down  in  the  large  leather- 
cushioned  easy-chairs.  The  piazza  was  open  toward  the 


A  SCHOLAR  IN  THE  WILDERNESS.  65 

north,  but  on  the  western  side  a  steel-wire  net  gave  sup 
port  to  a  semi-translucent  hedge  of  morning-glory  vines, 
which  with  an  eagerness  of  aspiration,  quite  dispropor 
tionate  to  their  strength,  climbed  upward  to  the  ceiling, 
threatening  a  total  eclipse  of  the  broad  landscape  which 
lay,  bathed  in  the  evening  sun,  in  the  valley  below. 

"  Did  you  know,"  began  the  doctor  after  a  few  minutes' 
pause  during  which  he  had  been  blowing  rings  of  cigar- 
smoke,  "  that  we  have  an  embryonic  Halgerda  in  this 
town — as  exquisite  a  combination  of  the  angel  and  the 
devil  as  any  Saga  heroine  you  could  name  ? " 

"  No,"  retorted  Einar  with  sudden  animation.  "  I 
should  like  to  see  her.  What  is  her  name  ?  " 

"  Her  name  is  Helga  Raven,  but  I  should  rather  ad 
vise  you  not  to  see  her,  at  least  not  until  you  have  girded 
yourself  with  a  more  solid  armor  of  Philistinism  like  your 
compatriots  in  this  place.  To  an  ardent  young  tempera 
ment  like  yours  she  is  positively  dangerous.  But,  by  the 
way,"  he  added  with  a  flash  of  memory  in  his  eyes,  "  you 
have  seen  her,  my  boy.  You  saw  her  in  the  church.  You 
inflicted  upon  her  the  first  defeat  she  has  probably  ever 
known,  and  possibly  the  last  she  is  ever  destined  to  expe 
rience.  But  beware  !  I  have  warned  you.  I  should  not 
be  surprised  if  she  revenged  herself  by  conquering  her 
conqueror.  The  instinct  of  vengeance  runs  deep  in  the 
Norse  blood." 

"  Doctor,"  broke  forth  Einar,  with  a  visible  effort  at 
self-mastery,  "  I  don't  like  to  disagree  with  you  ;  but  I  do 
think  it  is  outrageous  in  you  to  call  such  a  woman  a  devil. 
I  don't  mind  telling  you  that  I  never  saw  a  fairer  vision 
of  womanhood  in  all  my  life." 

"  Bravo,"  cried  the  doctor,  with  a  flourish  of  his  cigar. 
"  I  could  have  foretold  it !  You  have  gone  the  way  of 


66  FALCONBERG. 

all  flesh.  But  you  are  mistaken  about  my  calling  her  a 
devil.  On  the  contrary,  I  admit  that  the  angel  is  at 
present  predominant  in  her.  And  for  that  matter,  you 
know  that  there  is  a  substratum  of  deviltry  in  all  woman 
hood,  which,  however,  the  repressive  influences  of  our 
tyrannical  civilization  prevents  from  coming  to  the  sur 
face.  Barbarism  is  more  transparent.  Imagine,  if  you 
can,  Miss  Raven  transplanted  into  a  more  barbaric  age, 
where  there  are  no  despotic  proprieties  to  choke  up  the 
volcanic  undercurrents  of  her  nature,  and  if  my  psycholo 
gical  insight  is  not  all  chimerical,  you  would  see  bursts 
of  wilder  heroism  than  any  history  has  as  yet  recorded. 
Have  you  noticed,  for  instance,  that  gaze  of  hers  ?  Did 
you  ever  see  a  larger  gaze  in  a  woman  ?  Her  gravity  has 
a  luminous  depth  which  baffles  the  sturdiest  sense  with 
its  bewildering  suggestions  of  vast,  unknown  regions  be 
neath.  Her  gayety,  which  is  rarer,  is,  in  spite  of  its  occa 
sional  grotesqueness,  essentially  of  the  same  kind.  It  is 
not  the  airy,  shallow  ripple  of  common  feminine  mirth, 
but  the  irresistible  up-welling  of  strong  forces  within — a 
rich,  full-toned  murmur,  like  that  of  warm  springs  which 
have  their  sources  deep  in  the  earth's  breast,  and  listen  to 
its  passionate  heart-beats.  Therefore,  judge  her  not  by 
the  vulgar  standards  of  society.  So  pure  a  phenomenon 
as  she  is  worth  all  and  more  than  all  society  put  together. 
Behold,  I  have  spoken." 

This  was  Van  Flint's  favorite  phrase  with  which  he 
usually  ended  his  more  impressive  harangues.  Einar  had 
sat  listening  in  astonished  silence.  The  doctor's  vehement 
eloquence  had  awakened  a  sudden  fear  in  his  mind  that  it 
might  have  a  deeper  cause  than  he  had  hitherto  suspected. 

"If  I  may  judge  by  your  language,  Doctor,"  said  he  at 
length,  while  a  vague  jealousy  flushed  his  words  with 


A  SCHOLAR  2X   THE   WILDERNESS.  67 

something  resembling  irritation,  "you  must  have  pene 
trated  deep  into  the  hidden  sanctums  of  Miss  Raven's 
heart.  So  profound  an  analysis  can  hardly  be  the  result 
of  a  mere  hasty  acquaintance.  I  too  rejoiced  in  the  sub 
dued  richness  of  her  personality — something  like  a  closed 
rose-bud,  showing  through  its  green  calyx  deep  streaks  of 
crimson,  and  promising  a  great  glory  of  color  when  the 
warm  breath  of  love  shall  have  disclosed  all  its  hidden 
fervor.  But  of  the  latent  barbarism  you  speak  of  I  could 
discover  no  trace." 

Poor  Einar  had  secretly  gloried  in  this  simile,  and  had 
been  perpetually  haunted  by  it  ever  since  it  invaded  his 
mind,  at  that  first  meeting  in  the  church.  It  was  almost 
a  relief  now  to  be  able  to  utter  it.  He  looked  fixedly  at 
the  doctor,  to  observe  the  effect,  but  the  latter  sat  gravely 
gazing  at  the  cigar  smoke  which  rose  in  blue,  vanishing 
lines  into  the  clear  air,  and  seemed  absorbed  in  some  in 
ward  contemplation. 

"  Finnson,"  he  said  at  last,  suddenly  collecting  himself, 
"  we  are  both  growing  poetical,  and  that  is  a  bad  sign.  I 
told  you  it  was  a  dangerous  subject.  I  know  Miss  Raven 
well.  She  has  been  my  pupil  for  four  years.  I  have 
taught  her  French  and  German  since  she  was  a  little  girl. 
She  has  served  me  as  a  capital  Saga  study,  and  I  am  pro 
foundly  grateful  to  her  for  it.  She  and  Ingrid  Korderud 
used  to  come  here  together  twice  a  week,  and  very  satis 
factory  pupils  they  were.  I  refused  to  take  any  pay,  but 
Norderud  insisted  upon  paying  for  both,  and  I  had  to 
yield.  Ingrid,  as  you  know,  is  a  good  deal  younger  than 
Miss  Raven,  and  if  you  would  take  the  lessons  with  her 
for  the  future,  I  should  regard  it  as  a  favor.  Miss  Raven 
will  probably  not  continue  next  year.  At  present  we 
have  a  vacation." 


68  FALCONBERG. 

"  There  is  time  enough  for  discussing  that,  later,"  re 
plied  the  Norseman.  "  But  tell  me,  have  you  any  objec 
tion  to  introducing  me  to  your  pupil?  There  is  some 
thing  which  I  am  very  anxious  to  tell  her." 

"  Objection  ?  Not  at  all.  It  is  inevitable  that  you 
should  meet  her.  In  this  place  everybody  meets  ;  and 
you  may  just  as  well  meet  your  doom  to-day  as  to-morrow. 
If  you  are  ready,  we  will  start  after  supper." 

The  doctor  struck  a  match  and  lighted  his  cigar,  which, 
in  the  heat  of  his  eloquence,  he  had  neglected  ;  then 
walked  briskly  over  to  the  Icelandic  dower-bed,  but  pres 
ently  returned,  laid  both  his  hands  on  Einar's  shoulder, 
and  looking  at  him  with  his  warm,  winning  smile,  said  : 

"  You  are  jealous,  my  boy.  Don't  deny  it.  You  can't 
conceal  that  kind  of  malady  from  me.  I  know  the  symp 
toms  from  bitter  experience.  But  how  can  you  fear  an 
old,  dusty  mummy  like  me  as  a  rival  1  Don't  you  see,  it 
is  too  preposterous  ?  " 

The  young  man  could  not  but  respond  to  that  appeal 
ing  smile.  He  took  his  friend's  arm,  and  as  the  bell  just 
then  rang  in  the  dining-room,  they  walked  out  together 
to  supper. 

An  hour  later  they  were  both  on  the  way  to  the  nest  of 
the  dangerous  Raven. 


CHAPTER  VI. 


WHILE  marching  along  under  the  young  trees  in  the 
cool  dusk  of  the  summer  evening  the  doctor  delivered 
himself  of  a  harangue  abundantly  sprinkled  with  philo 
sophical  maxims  and  observations.  It  was  well,  he 
thought,  that  his  friend  should  know  something  of  the  foi 
bles  and  peculiarities  of  Mrs.  Haven,  with  whom  he  would, 
no  doubt,  during  the  coming  years  be  intimately  associ 
ated.  And  therefore,  with  the  very  friendliest  intentions, 
the  doctor  set  out  to  analyze  the  poor  old  lady's  character, 
and  naturally  delighting  in  his  own  sagacity,  continued 
his  work  of  dissection  until  in  the  end  he  had  to  look  back 
with  half-amused  horror  upon  the  havoc  he  had  accom 
plished. 

"  She  is  really  a  very  good  and  kind-hearted  woman," 
he  concluded  with  saying;  "only,  as  I  remarked,  a  little 
giddy  for  one  so  old,  a  little  irascible  and  terribly  sore 
about  her  dignity.  But  sat  sapienti,  you  may  judge  for 
yourself." 

u  Yes,  that  is  to  say,  after  having  been  first  told  by  you 
how  to  do  it,"  responded  Einar  with  a  gay  laugh. 

They  halted  at  the  gate  of  a  small,  white-painted  frame 
house,  with  the  gable  fronting  the  street — a  typical  speci 
men  of  that  barren  utilitarian  architecture  which  is  so 
deplorably  prevalent  in  our  western  towns  and  cities.  A 


70  FALCONBERG. 

small  but  luxuriant  flower-garden  surrounded  the  cottage 
and  a  large,  umbrageous  hop-vine  clambered  over  the 
front  porch.  Having  rung  the  door-bell,  they  were  ad 
mitted  into  the  hall  by  a  fresh-looking  young  maiden  of 
unmistakably  Norse  aspect,  whom  the  doctor  addressed  as 
Annie  Lisbeth,  and  honored  with  a  few  jocose  remarks  in 
her  own  mother-tongue.  In  an  aside  to  Einar  he  ex 
plained  that  she  was  a  former  pupil  of  his  and  a  daughter 
of  old  Magnus,  the  fisherman. 

In  the  small  uncarpeted  parlor  which  they  now  entered 
the  fading  daylight  was  still  further  obscured  by  mosquito 
nets  and  thick  lace  curtains;  as  for  blinds,  Mrs.  Raven 
looked  upon  them  as  a  pernicious  Yankee  invention,  and, 
although  admitting  their  usefulness,  was  determined  to 
exclude  them  from  her  dwelling.  The  whole  appearance 
of  the  room  was  as  un-American  as  could  well  be  imag 
ined.  The  painted  floor,  the  long  rows  of  glazed  earthen 
flower-pots  in  the  windows,  the  small  rugs  scattered  here 
and  there  in  front  of  the  divan  and  the  easy-chairs,  the 
large  round  mahogany  table  placed  before  the  ponderous 
sofa  in  the  corner,  the  severely  angular  style  of  the  horse 
hair-covered  furniture — all  betrayed  a  scrupulous  exclu 
sion  of  our  aggressive  national  life  and  an  obstinate  ad 
herence  to  that  which  tradition  had  made  dear  and  famil 
iar.  It  was  as  Van  Flint  remarked,  the  old  story  of  Mrs. 
Partington  and  the  Atlantic  Ocean. 

Presently  a  pair  of  folding  doors  were  pushed  aside  and 
Mrs.  Haven  advanced  toward  the  doctor  with  a  rapid  and 
almost  unnaturally  youthful  step.  She  was  a  tall,  spare 
woman  with  a  small,  bird-like  head  surmounted  by  a  lace 
cap  with  floating  cap-strings.  She  shook  the  doctor's  hand 
and  made  the  stiffest  imaginable  bow  to  Einar,  whom  Ids 

O  ' 

friend  took  the  liberty  to  introduce  after  his  own  elabor- 


THE  RAVEN'S  NEST.  71 

ate  fashion  with  numerous  commendations;  but  his  elo 
quence  for  once  seemed  to  produce  but  a  slight  impres 
sion  ;  for  the  old  lady  listened  with  an  air  of  severe  in 
dulgence,  as  if  to  say  that  he  might  practice  his  tricks 
upon  the  credulous,  but  she  was  not  so  easily  imposed 
upon. 

"  My  daughter  misses  your  lessons  sadly,  Doctor,"  said 
she,  pointing  to  the  seat  at  her  side  on  the  sofa;  "you 
know  you  are  the  only  one  of  your  whole  barbaric  race 
from  whom  we  have  ever  consented  to  accept  a  favor,  to 
whom  we  do  not  fear  to  remain  in  an  eternal  debt  of 
gratitude." 

"  Your  humble  servant,  madam,"  responded  the  gallant 
doctor.  "As  I  have  frequently  told  you,  it  is  I  who  am 
your  debtor.  Miss  Raven  is  a  pupil  whom  a  man  of  my 
pedagogic  instincts  would  willingly  pay  a  high  price  for 
the  privilege  of  instructing." 

"You  are  pleased  to  jest,  Doctor,"  answered  the  lady 
with  a  perceptible  relaxation  in  the  rigidity  of  her  high- 
pitched  voice.  "  You  will  forgive  me  if  I  approach  once 
more  our  forbidden  topic ;  but  if  it  were  not  for  your  very 
marked  accent,  I  should  certainly,  in  spite  of  your  own 
assertion  to  the  contrary,  believe  you  to  be  a  Norwegian. 
By  what  freak  of  Providence  did  a  man  of  your  refine 
ment  and  scholarly  tastes  happen  to  be  born  among  this 
shop-keeping  and  office-hunting  people  ?  " 

"  Pardon  me,  madam.  You  know  from  long  experi 
ence  that  I  claim  myself  the  privilege  of  abusing  my 
countrymen ;  but  for  all  that  I  feel  bound  to  defend 
them  against  your  reproaches.  You  judge  of  America  as 
a  blind  man  would  judge  of  a  painting,  the  description  of 
which  had  been  read  to  him  from  an  imperfect  catalogue. 
The  grocer,  Jones,  and  Hopkins,  the  county  clerk,  with 


72  FALCONBERG. 

whom  you  have  come  in  contact,  are  but  a  small  and  very 
insignificant  fraction  of  the  American  people,  and  to 
judge  the  whole  nation  by  two  or  a  dozen  such  imperfect 
specimens  is  about  as  just  as  it  would  be  to  take  the  liter 
ary  acquirements  of  old  Magnus  Fisherman  as  the  educa 
tional  standard  among  the  Norwegians." 

Mrs.  Raven  and  the  doctor  were  now  fairly  started 
upon  the  topic  into  which  they  invariably  drifted  after 
five  minutes'  conversation,  in  spite  of  their  mutual  agree 
ment  to  the  contrary.  Yan  Flint  made  several  appeals 
to  Einar,  in  the  course  of  the  discussion,  but  the  hostess 
remained  rigidly  irresponsive  and  seemed  determined 
to  ignore  the  presence  of  the  unwelcome  guest.  The 
doctor  had  difficulty  in  suppressing  his  irritation,  as  he 
naturally  regarded  her  impoliteness  to  his  friend  as  an 
emphatic,  though  evidently  unintentional,  slight  to  him 
self,  lie  therefore  rose  abruptly  and  cut  the  controversy 
short  by  inquiring  whether  Miss  Raven  was  at  home  and 
would  give  him  the  honor  of  her  presence. 

"  She  was  here  a  moment  ago,"  declared  the  mother, 
with  a  touch  of  petulance  in  her  voice.  "  That  young 
Norderud  came  and  I  believe  you  will  find  them  both 
out  on  the  back  piazza." 

Mrs.  Raven,  this  dry  and  angular  piece  of  humanity 
whose  icy  presence  had  sent  a  chill  of  discomfort  through 
our  warm-blooded  hero,  and  who,  to  an  indifferent  eye, 
appeared  as  uninteresting  a  phenomenon  as  was  ever 
clothed  in  human  form,  had  nevertheless  a  pathetic  chap 
ter  in  her  life's  history,  which  has  its  claim  upon  the 
reader's  sympathy.  If  her  own  word  could  be  trusted  in 
such  a  matter,  she  had  once  been  very  beautiful,  a  fact  of 
which  the  extraordinary  beauty  of  her  only  surviving 
child  might  be  taken  as  inferential  evidence.  Asa  young 


THE  RAVEN'S  NEST.  73 

girl  she  had  married  a  man  somewhat  above  herself  in 
station,  and  had,  after  the  transient  happiness  of  a  brief 
honeymoon,  meekly  borne  injustice  and  neglect,  being 
always  profoundly  impressed  by  her  own  good  luck  in 
having  secured  a  husband  whose  position  and  social  ac 
complishments  were  so  eminently  superior  to  her  own. 
Mr.  Raven  had  been  a  dashing  and  brilliant  man  whose 
restless,  full-blooded  youth  could  but  imperfectly  adapt 
itself  to  the  steady  and  measured  pace  of  the  matrimonial 
tread-mill.  After  having  spent  several  years  in  the  diplo 
matic  service  as  attache  of  a  foreign  legation,  he  had  ac 
cepted  an  inferior  appointment  in  one  of  the  government 
departments,  and  had  advanced  rapidly  from  one  position 
to  another,  when  death  suddenly  cut  short  his  career.  It 
is  true,  he  had  never  been  a  very  good  husband,  but  his 
wife  still  tenderly  cherished  his  memory,  dwelling  only 
on  his  fine  qualities,  of  which,  indeed,  he  had  many,  until 
at  length  she  persuaded  herself  that  he  had  been  the  ideal 
of  a  consort,  and  her  own  life  with  him  a  stainless  record 
of  unalloyed  bliss.  He  had  been  a  sanguine  man  who 
always  hoped  for  better  things  to  come,  and  had  found 
much  difficulty  in  adapting  his  habits  to  his  scanty  means  ; 
and  his  debts  had  weighed  heavily  on  his  widow  until, 
the  year  before  her  emigration,  a  charitable  relative  had 
taken  pity  on  her  and  paid  the  remaining  amount.  Be 
side  his  debts  Mr.  Raven  had  also  at  his  death  left  two 
children,  of  whom  Gustav,  the  son,  promised  fair  to  fol 
low  in  his  father's  footsteps.  His  mother  had  done  her 
best  to  spoil  him ;  had  constantly  appealed  to  his  vanity 
by  telling  him  of  the  admiration  he  excited  by  his  hand 
some  appearance,  and  had  reproached  Providence  when 
in  the  end  she  reaped  the  fruits  of  her  own  doings. 

Gustav  Raven  grew  up  a  brilliant  and  reckless  youth, 
4 


74:  FALCONBERG. 

and  soon  acquired  the  unenviable  reputation  of  being  the 
greatest  roue  in  the  capital.  During  his  various  futile 
efforts  to  enter  the  military  academy  he  became  entangled 
in  several  disgraceful  scrapes,  each  of  which  his  mother 
readily  condoned,  being  always  firmly  convinced  that  he 
had  "  such  an  excellent  heart."  At  last,  however,  his  rela 
tives  prevailed  upon  her  to  save  the  family  honor  by  send 
ing  him  to  sea,  which  concession  nearly  broke  her  heart. 
But  Gustav's  career  as  a  sailor  was  of  brief  duration.  At 
the  first  opportunity  which  presented  itself,  he  deserted, 
because  the  discipline  disagreed  with  him,  and  after  many 
adventures  on  sea  and  land  he  finally  reached  the  settlement 
of  Hardanger,  where  Norderud  received  him  in  his  house, 
and,  after  many  a  hard  fight,  really  succeeded  in  making 
something  of  a  man  of  him.  In  Hardanger  there  was  at 
that  time  positively  no  chance  for  dissipation,  and  this,  in 
connection  with  Norderud's  guardianship  and  wakeful 
supervision,  proved  Gustav  Haven's  salvation.  The  sturdy 
farmer,  with  his  blunt  manner  and  uncompromising  in 
tegrity,  accomplished  what  no  amount  of  cajoling  and 
soft  speeches  could  ever  have  done ;  the  young  man,  for 
the  first  time  in  his  life  seriously  roused  from  his  moral 
lethargy,  made  a  manly  effort  to  mend  the  error  of  his 
ways,  and  Norderud,  seeing  that  he  was  in  earnest,  fur 
nished  the  necessary  capital  and  established  him  in  busi 
ness  with  his  own  son,  Amund.  The  fond  mother,  heed 
less  of  her  own  future  and  even  of  that  of  her  daughter, 
as  soon  as  she  received  the  joyful  tidings,  immediately 
embarked  for  America  and  hastened  to  her  prodigal  son 
in  his  western  wilderness.  Gustav's  "  excellent  heart,"  in 
which  she  had  always  believed,  had  triumphed  at  last, 
and  during  the  first  year  even  the  privations  of  pioneer 
life  failed  to  subdue  her  ardor  and  quench  the  glow  of 


THE  RAVEN'S  NEST.  75 

her  maternal  joy.  Bat  when  that  brief  year  was  at  an 
end,  the  great  civil  war  broke  out,  and  Gustav,  with  all 
those  of  Norderud's  sons  who  were  of  man's  estate,  enlisted 
in  the  army  ;  and  when  the  rebellion  was  quelled,  there 
was  sorrow  both  in  the  farmer's  and  in  the  widow's  house  ; 
they  had  both  paid  the  price  of  victory  by  the  loss  of 
what  was  dearest  to  them.  Of  Norderud's  three  sons,  two 
returned  ;  but  Gustav  Raven  never  retraced  his  steps  to 
the  settlement  of  Hardanger,  where  he  had  found  a  harbor 
for  his  shipwrecked  life.  The  dry  goods  firm  in  the  main 
street,  however,  still  remained  "  Raven  &  Norderud,"  and 
I  believe,  remains  so  till  this  day. 

Mrs.  Raven,  having  no  means  to  return  to  Norway,  now 
lived  with  her  daughter  in  a  small  cottage  belonging  to 
Norderud,  and  managed  to  support  her  threadbare  gen 
tility  by  means  of  her  son's  pension  and  a  small  widow's 
legacy  which  she  received  from  the  Norwegian  govern 
ment.  Norderud,  for  whom,  for  some  reason  or  other, 
she  had  conceived  a  strong  dislike,  gave  her  the  rent  of 
the  cottage,  but  was  delicate  enough  to  make  her  believe 
that  she  received  it,  not  as  a  charity,  but  as  the  interest  on 
her  son's  share  in  the  dry  goods  business.  It  was  very 
galling  to  Mrs.  Raven  that  she  should  be  in  any  way  de 
pendent  upon  a  man  like  Norderud,  who  was  "  nothing 
but  a  peasant,"  and,  accordingly,  so  infinitely  inferior  to 
herself  both  in  rank  and  intelligence.  And  Norderud, 
whose  native  bluntness  was  outbalanced  by  an  equal 
amount  of  native  delicacy,  had  become  so  accustomed  to 
humor  her  wishes,  that  he  never  offered  to  help  her  openly, 
but  bestowed  his  gifts  clandestinely  through  the  medium 
of  the  pastor,  who  was  a  man  "  of  gentle  birth,"  and  from 
whose  hand  it  was,  therefore,  less  humiliating  to  accept 
assistance.  Of  late,  however,  Mr.  Falconberg's  disagree- 


76  FALCONBERG. 

nient  with  his  principal  parishioner  had  made  matters  in 
conveniently  complicated,  and  had  induced  the  latter  to 
consider  seriously  whether  it  was  not  a  piece  of  folly  on 
his  part  to  indulge  the  whims  of  a  pretentious  old  lady 
who,  in  spite  of  her  dependence  upon  him,  persisted  in 
treating  him  with  proud  disregard  or  with  lofty  conde 
scension. 

Such  was  the  situation  when  Einar's  arrival  and  Norde- 
rud's  support  of  his  candidacy  for  the  organist's  place, 
versus  the  pastor  in  behalf  of  Miss  Raven,  blew  the 
smouldering  hostility  into  full  blaze.  The  Reverend 
Marcus  Falconberg  had  that  very  morning  called  on  Mrs. 
Raven,  and,  in  the  heat  of  their  indignation,  they  had 
agreed  that  Einar  was  a  brand  of  discord  in  the  parish, 
and,  in  all  probability,  a  dangerous  character,  whose 
presence  ought  not  to  be  tolerated  outside  of  Norderud's 
immediate  circle.  That  Dr.  Van  Flint  had  taken  him  up 
was  also  attributed  to  some  deep-laid  scheme  of  Norde- 
rud's,  but  the  pastor  and  Mrs.  Raven  were  not  going  to 
be  outwitted  in  that  way,  but  would  soon  prove  that  they 
were  fully  his  match.  Mr.  Falconberg,  who  prided  him 
self  on  being  a  wily  Ulysses,  had  further  fortified  his 
position  in  the  eyes  of  his  admiring  friend,  by  quoting  the 
passage  from  Scripture  about  being  "  wise  as  serpents  and 
harmless  as  doves." 

Einar  and  the  doctor  made  their  exit  through  the  front 
door  and  walked  round  the  house  to  the  back  piazza,  where 
Helga  and  Amund  Norderud  were  having  their  tete-d-tete. 
They  found  Miss  Raven  sitting  in  a  rocking-chair,  leaning 
backward  in  an  easy  attitude  and  busy  with  some  kind  of 
feminine  handiwork,  while  her  companion  was  reclining 
on  the  steps  at  her  feet  and  gazing  up  into  her  face  with 
an  air  of  silent,  beseeching  admiration.  There  came  a 


THE  RAVEN'S  NEST.  77 

quick  flash  of  pleasure  into  her  eyes  as  she  caught  sight 
of  the  doctor,  and  she  greeted  him  with  a  certain  quiet 
cordiality,  as  if  he  knew  her  too  well  to  need  any  demon 
strative  assurance  of  her  good  will. 

"  Miss  Helga,"  said  the  doctor,  seizing  Einar  by  the 
arm,  "  this  is  Mr.  Einar  Finnson,  a  countryman  of  yours, 
a  much-traveled  Viking,  who  has  seen  many  nations  and 
become  acquainted  with  their  manners.  You  know  that 
I  am  an  unselfish  man,  and  that  whenever  anything  good 
has  befallen  me,  it  has  always  been  my  first  impulse  to 
share  it  with  you.  This  is  my  reason  for  bringing  you 
Mr.  Finnson." 

"  No,  really,  Doctor,"  cried  Einar,  laughing,  while  he 
bowed  and  shook  the  hand  Helga  had  offered  him,  "  if  we 
are  to  remain  on  a  friendly  footing,  you  must  endeavor 
to  restrain  your  poetic  fancy.  What  place  do  you  suppose 
I  shall  occupy  in  Miss  Raven's  estimation  if,  as  will  surely 
happen,  1  shall  fail  to  fulfill  the  golden  promise  with 
which  you  have  so  recklessly  saddled  me  ?  Miss  Raven," 
lie  added,  turning  his  bright  face  toward  the  young  girl, 
"  I  hope  you  are  sufficiently  well  acquainted  with  Dr.  Van 
Flint's  mental  habits  to  know  that  his  estimate  of  his 
friends,  whether  they  be  men  of  to-day  or  Vikings  of  a 
thousand  years  ago,  is  apt  to  be  somewhat  exaggerated." 

"  My  dear  fellow,"  broke  in  the  doctor,  with  a  pleasant 
laugh,  "you  open  up  a  charming  prospect  for  me  as  an 
author,  if  that  is  to  be  the  general  opinion  of  my  capacity 
for  moral  judgment." 

"  You  may  be  perfectly  at  your  ease,  Mr.  Finnson," 
said  Helga,  in  her  rich,  melodious  undertone ;  "  I  know 
very  well  when  to  accept  the  doctor's  verdicts  and  when 
to  question  them.  If  you  were  a  Viking,  outlawed  for 
murder  or  some  other  interesting  crime,  he  would  be  sure 


78  FALCONBERO. 

to  make  a  hero  of  you,  and  I  should  naturally  employ 
what  little  influence  I  may  have  over  him  to  beguile  him 
away  from  your  dangerous  companionship  ;  but  since  you 
come  here  in  the  unromantic  guise  of  a  modern  gentle 
man,  I  think  my  solicitude  for  my  teacher's  welfare  need 
not  prompt  me  to  interfere." 

Helga  had  unknowingly  touched  the  unhealed  wound. 
Einar  felt  the  blood  mounting  to  his  face  and  he 
clenched  his  teeth  firmly  together,  as  if  by  some  physi 
cal  effort  to  stay  the  tide  of  painful  memories.  Was  he 
not  an  outlaw  whose  companionship  might  perhaps  bring 
disaster  to  those  who  trusted  in  him  ?  But  Helga  was 

D 

happily  at  that  moment  engaged  in  finding  a  comfortable 
seat  for  the  doctor,  and  the  doctor  was  equally  busy  in 
making  remonstrance  against  her  friendly  exertions  in  his 
behalf.  And  to  fill  up  the  gap  in  the  conversation  and 
detract  attention  from  himself,  Einar  turned  abruptly  to 
Amund  Norderud,  whom  of  course  he  had  known  since  the 
day  of  his  arrival  in  the  settlement,  and  asked  him  almost 
fiercely  concerning  his  mother's  health.  Amund  was  a 
blue-eyed  and  raw-boned  young  giant  of  about  thirty, 
with  large  good-natured  features,  broad  brow  and  an 
abundant  pate  of  light-brown  hair.  His  clothes  had 
somehow  a  meretricious  look  of  having  been  bought  ready- 
made,  and  gathering  in  ample  folds  over  his  shoulders,  and 
indeed  everywhere,  utterly  refused  to  adapt  themselves  to 
the  angularities  of  his  body.  He  had  been  an  ardent 
admirer  of  Helga,  since  the  time  she  was  a  school-girl, 
and  had  followed  her  about  with  the  unreflecting  devotion 
of  an  ill-favored  dog  who  accepts  kicks  and  caresses  from 
his  mistress  with  the  same  patient  equanimity.  As  the 
partner  and  faithful  friend  of  her  deceased  son,  Mrs. 
Raven  was  inclined  to  regard  him  as  less  objectionable 


THE  RA  YEN'S  NEST.  79 

than  the  other  members  of  his  plebeian  family, — perhaps 
with  the  exception  of  the  daughter  Ingrid,  whose  girlish 
affection  for  Ilelga  claimed  some  recognition  on  her 
part. 

Now  Amund  was  sitting  on  the  steps  of  the  piazza  and 
listening,  not  without  a  vague  sense  of  jealousy  (for  even 
dumb  animals  are  not  exempt  from  this  troublesome  emo 
tion),  to  Helga's  animated  conversation  with  the  doctor 
and  the  Norwegian  visitor.  She  made  an  occasional  ap 
peal  to  him,  evidently  prompted  by  pity,  in  order  not  to 
leave  him  altogether  out  in  the  cold,  and  he  answered  in 
his  own  awkward  fashion,  but  still  failed  to  catch  the 
drift  of  the  discussion.  It  was  already  growing  dark,  but 
the  red  glow  along  the  horizon's  rim  was  like  a  faint  echo 
by  which  the  retiring  day  still  made  its  presence  remotely 
felt ;  it  had  only  gone  to  rest  for  a  brief  hour,  while  its 
warm  gaze  was  yet  watching  them  from  over  the  ridge  of 
the  western  hills.  The  superb  contour  of  Helga's  head 
with  its  rippling  abundance  of  golden  hair  and  the  beauty 
of  her  figure  were  still  visible  in  the  dusk,  and  the  mellow 
cadence  of  her  voice  fell  upon  Arnund's  ear  like  a  siren's 
song  against  which  he  had  for  many  a  year  been  endeavor 
ing  to  close  the  ears  of  his  soul,  but  always  with  the  same 
miserable  result. 

"  How  I  envy  you  men,"  he  heard  Helga  saying,  <c  the 
faculty  to  compel  your  lives  to  shape  themselves  in  ac 
cordance  with  some  ruling  idea.  To  a  woman  everything 
is  destiny  ;  she  can  do  little  or  nothing  toward  fashioning 
her  own  fate,  and  if  she  has  anything  worth  living  for,  a 
hundred  obstinate  circumstances  invariably  combine  to 
frustrate  her  endeavors." 

Einar,  who  was  then  more  sensitive  than  usually,  de 
tected  in  this  remark  a  covert  allusion  to  her  late  defeat 


80  FALCONBERG. 

in  the  musical  contest,  although  that  event  was  at  the  mo 
ment  very  far  from  Helga's  mind.  The  charitable  dark 
ness  hid  his  excitement,  and  he  answered  with  as  much 
composure  as  he  could  summon  : 

"  If  I  am  a  fair  representative  of  my  sex  (which  I 
hardly  claim  to  be)  and  if  I  dare  judge  from  my  own  expe 
rience,  I  should  say  that  fate  is  as  inexorable  a  fact  in  a 
man's  life  as  in  that  of  a  woman.  A  man  may  act  from  the 
most  generous  motives,  and  still  find  himself  placed  in 
situations  where  he  has  only  the  choice  between  two  mean 
and  ungenerous  deeds.  Circumstances,  in  the  making  of 
which  he  has  himself  no  hand,  wind  day  by  day  their 
dense  net-work  about  him  and,  before  he  knows  it,  his 
alternative  is  no  longer  between  good  and  bad  but  only 
between  the  greater  and  the  lesser  evil." 

Einar  had  a  distinct  case  in  his  mind  as  he  spoke,  and 
the  last  sentences  were  hurried  from  his  lips  with  a  good 
deal  of  impetuous  feeling.  There  was  a  pause  before 
any  one  undertook  to  reply;  the  doctor  leaned  forward 
and  rested  his  chin  meditatively  on  the  head  of  his  cane 
and  Amund  observed  that  the  mosquitoes  were  getting 
\ery  troublesome.  At  last,  Helga's  voice,  which  seemed 
to  have  gathered  force  from  the  silence,  came  clear  and 
soft  out  of  the  darkness  : 

"The  man  who  could  find  himself  in  the  situation  you 
have  described,  Mr.  Finnson,  would  hardly  be  a  man  after 
my  heart.  I  confess  that  I  have  sometimes  wished  that 
I  were  myself  a  man,  because  here  in  Hardanger  a  woman 
is  nothing  but  a  needed  appendage  to  a  man's  life.  And 
I  should  like  so  much  to  be  something  by  myself,  not 
merely  in  my  own  estimation,  but  also  in  the  estimation 
of  those  among  whom  I  have  to  live.  There,  for  instance, 
is  the  doctor,  who  loves  your  old  Norse  history  and  litera- 


TEE  RAVEN'S  NEST.  81 

ture  and  who  has  chosen  for  himself  the  glorious  task  of 
enlightening  the  world  on  a  subject  of  which  the  world 
knows  next  to  nothing.  It  is  such  a  life  I  should  like  to 
live,  but  as  I  cannot  do  it  as  a  woman,  1  have  wished  that 
I  were  something  else." 

The  implied  reproach  in  her  words  touched  Einar  to  the 
quick  and  their  naive  straightforwardness  moved  him 
deeply. 

"  It  is  very  fortunate,  Miss  Ilelga,"  said  Van  Flint  with 
his  quiet  chuckle,  "  that  I  have  a  sufficiently  poor  opinion 
of  myself  to  counterbalance  your  immoderate  praise.  To 
have  a  handsome  young  lady  like  yourself  avow  such  ex 
alted  notions  about  one's  pursuits  might  well  turn  the  head 
of  even  a  less  conceited  fellow  than  myself  and  bring  all 
his  latent  vanity  to  the  surface." 

"  Ah,  Doctor,"  retorted  the  girl,  shaking  her  head,  "  I 
shall  not  question  your  sincerity,  but  I  dare  say  that  if  I 
possessed  your  accomplishments  I  should  be  less  modest 
than  you  are." 

It  must  be  admitted  that  it  is  never  very  agreeable  to 
be  made  aware  of  one's  own  deficiencies,  even  if  the  gainer 
by  the  implied  comparison  is  one's  bosom  friend ;  and 
Einar,  whose  feelings  during  the  whole  of  this  interview 
had  been  moving  on  in  a  steady  crescendo,  had  by  this 
time  reached  a  most  painful  fortissimo.  He  rose  abruptly, 
and,  with  the  impetuosity  peculiar  to  generous  and  full- 
blooded  youth,  made  his  way  through  the  open  window 
into  the  back  parlor  where  he  found  Mrs.  Haven  engaged 
in  knitting  by  the  light  of  a  green-shaded  kerosene  lamp. 
She  looked  up,  frowning  as  she  saw  him  advancing  toward 
her,  then  bent  again  with  increased  assiduity  over  her 
knitting. 

"  I  come,"  began  Einar,  with  the  excitement  still  quiv- 


82  FALCONBERG. 

ering  in  his  voice,  "  to  ask  your  forgiveness  because  I  have 
unknowingly  caused  you  disappointment  by  gaining,  in  a 
worthless  contest,  a  position  which  justly  belonged  to  your 
daughter.  If  you  would  allow  me  to  resign  it  at  once  in 
her  favor,  you  would  make  me  very  happy.  I  know  that 
this  offer  must  appear  extraordinary  to  you,  coming,  as  it 
does,  from  one  who  is  a  stranger  to  you,  but  if  you  could 
see  my  motives,  you  would  find  it  in  no  way  humiliating 
to  yield  to  my  wish." 

Mrs.  Raven  showed  her  wrinkled  face  once  more  against 
the  lamp-light,  frowned  with  less  severity  than  before  but 
remained  silent.  There  was  something  very  engaging  in 
the  young  man's  manner ;  moreover,  his  appearance  had 
that  indefinable  air  of  distinction  which -never  failed  of  its 
effect  upon  her  aristocratic  heart,  and  the  ardor  of  his 
speech  imparted  to  him  a  certain  reckless  grace  which 
recalled  vividly  to  her  mind  her  own  lamented  son. 

"  Mr.  Finnson,"  she  said  at  last,  while  the  suddenly 
awakened  memory  softened  the  sternness  of  her  voice, 
"  do  you  not  understand  that  rny  position,  as  the  widow  of 
a  royal  Norwegian  official,  prevents  me  from  accepting  a 
favor  from  a  stranger  like  yourself,  of  whom  nothing  is 
known  here,  except  that  he  is  the  protege  of  a  man  of 
whom  the  less  said,  the  better." 

Einar,  although  by  no  means  discouraged,  was  for  the 
moment  quite  staggered  by  this  singular  allusion  to  Nor- 
derud.  Could  it  be  possible  that  his  fair  name  had  been 
stained  and  that  his  hospitality  to  new-comers  was  only  a 
shrewd  device  for  gaining  adherents  ?  Never  !  The  very 
face  of  the  man  made  such  a  suspicion  appear  preposter 
ous. 

"Well,"  resumed  the  old  lady,  with  a  half-feigned  im 
patience,  for  the  handsome  young  face  of  her  visitor  had 


THE  RA  YEN'S  NEST.  83 

by  this  time  quite  conquered  her  ill-will.  "  Is  there  any 
thing  more  ? " 

"  Only  this,  with  your  permission.  I  can  very  well  see 
the  force  of  your  objections.  But  I  cannot  consent  to  leave 
you  without  having  obtained  your  promise  that  you  will 
at  some  future  time,  when  even  the  appearance  of  confer 
ring  or  accepting  a  favor  must  have  vanished,  allow  me 
to  retire  in  favor  of  one  who  deserves  my  present  position 
so  much  better  than  I  do." 

"  Never  mind  the  position,  sir,"  retorted  Mrs.  Raven, 
this  time  failing  utterly  in  her  attempt  to  be  severe. 
"  But  if  you  wish  to  come  here  and  discuss  with  an  old 
lady  like  me  anything  else  you  may  choose  to  talk  about, 
I  shall  not  shut  my  door  in  your  face." 

With  this  not  over  cordial  invitation  to  return,  our 
Norseman  withdrew  and  once  more  joined  the  group  on 
the  piazza.  He  had  now  eased  his  heart,  and  in  the 
warm  after-glow  of  the  excitement  talked  with  a  beauti 
ful  naturalness  and  animation  which  gradually  roused 
Helga  from  the  apathetic  attitude  she  had  at  the  outset 
assumed  toward  him.  When,  an  hour  later,  she  entered 
the  parlor  where  her  mother  was  still  engaged  with  her 
knitting,  she  was,  however,  no  nearer  to  a  definite  judg 
ment  concerning  her  visitor  than  when  he  first  arrived. 
And  Helga's  mind  inclined  strongly  toward  decisive  judg 
ments  ;  her  proud  and  impetuous  nature  found  rest  only 
in  extremes  and  was  never  satisfied  with  the  golden  mean. 
She  liked  men  of  positive  character  and  had  even  more 
patience  with  large  vices  than  with  pusillanimous  medio 
crity.  Einar  appeared  to  her  a  very  complex  phenome 
non, — a  smooth,  well-bred  and  agreeable  man,  but  with 
out  any  very  positive  coloring.  And  still  there  was  an 
air  of  sincerity  about  him  and  a  refinement  of  speech  and 


84  FALCONBERG. 

manner  which  at  once  commanded  her  attention  and 
made  her  originally  indifferent  attitude  toward  him  as 
difficult  to  maintain  as  one  of  positive  dislike.  It  was, 
therefore,  with  a  hesitation  quite  unusual  with  her  that 
she  answered  her  mother's  question,  how  her  new  ac 
quaintance  had  impressed  her. 

"He  seems  to  be  so  terribly  well-bred,"  she  said,  "  that 
I  hardly  know  what  to  make  of  him.  I  wonder  how  the 
doctor  could  become  so  intimate  with  him.  They  are  so 
very  unlike.  I  only  know  that  I  shall  never  like  Mr. 
Finn  son  as  well  as  I  like  the  doctor.  These  social  graces, 
I  think,  are  often  the  mere  covering  of  moral  weakness, 
and  I  could  never  admire  a  weak  man." 

"  Ah,  don't  be  too  sure  of  that,  my  dear,"  said  Mrs. 
Raven,  and  nodded  knowingly. 

"  A  deuced  fine  woman,"  remarked  the  doctor,  when, 
after  a  long  silence,  he  slammed  his  garden  gate  behind 
him  with  a  good  deal  of  needless  energy.  In  this  rudely 
expressive  phrase  it  was  his  wont  to  vent  all  the  conflict 
ing  emotions  with  which  Helga  inspired  him,  whenever  a 
fresh  visit  had  roused  them  from  their  well-guarded  slum 
ber.  Einar  heartily  coincided  in  this  opinion,  but  for 
some  reason  or  other  he  found  it  unwise,  just  then,  to  say 
so.  lie  was  in  so  exalted  a  mood  that  words  seemed  su 
perfluous,  if  not  a  profanation.  In  his  holy  of  holies,  a 
man  preserves  a  sacred  silence. 


CHAPTER  YIL 
"THE  HARD  ANGER  CITIZEN." 

ONE  day  early  in  the  month  of  December,  about  five 
months  after  Einar  Finnson's  arrival  in  Hardanger,  there 
was  a  meeting  of  some  twelve  or  more  gentlemen,  all  solid 
capitalists  and  land-owners,  in  Nordertid's  front  parlor. 
The  meeting  was  but  a  semi-official  one,  but  for  the  sake 
of  preserving  a  parliamentary  appearance,  the  host  had, 
by  common  consent,  taken  the  chair,  and  was  jotting 
down  on  a  piece  of  paper  (and  with  a  blissful  disregard  of 
English  orthography)  some  memoranda,  while  his  neigh 
bor,  Nichols,  with  his  hands  oh  his  back  and  his  eyes 
steadily  fixed  on  the  floor,  was  combating  the  opinions  ex 
pressed  by  the  last  honored  speaker.  Farmer  Nichols, 
although  he  had  always  sustained  the  most  amicable  rela 
tions  to  the  Norderuds  personally,  had  a  notion  that  the 
essential  object  of  parliamentary  gatherings  was  universal 
dissent,  and,  adhering  to  this  principle,  he  had  persist 
ently  opposed  everybody  who  had  spoken  and  everything 
which  had  been  proposed  since  the  beginning  of  the  pres 
ent  meeting. 

"I  don't  see,"  he  said,  "that  a  paper  of  the  sort  the 
gentleman  thar  "  (with  a  sideward  inclination  of  the  head 
toward  the  chair)  "has  proposed  is  going  to  help  the 
farmers'  interests  in  this  here  county.  I  have  always 
taken  the 'Weekly  Tribune' (pronounced  Trybune)  my- 


80  FALCONDERO. 

self  iver  since  we  have  had  a  post-office  in  the  village, 
and  my  wife  reads  the  agricultural  stuff  thar  ivery  blessed 
week,  and  she  kept  a-botherin'  me  until  I  had  to  buy  a 
subsoil  plow  and  a  sort  of  new-fashioned  reaper.  But  I 
niver  saw  that  it  made  much  difference  with  the  potato- 
bugs  and  the  frost  whether  you  plowed  one  way  or  an 
other,  and  as  I  have  said  to  the  gentleman  thar,  I  don't 
take  much  stock  in  newspapers." 

The  speaker  here  produced  a  brass  tobacco-box  from 
the  depth  of  his  trowsers  pocket,  spat  with  deliberate  aim 
at  the  stove,  and  resumed  his  seat.  Norderud,  probably 
ignorant  of  the  restrictions  which  parliamentary  tradition 
imposes  upon  presiding  officers,  now  rose  for  the  fifth  or 
sixth  time  to  refute  his  neighbor's  argument  against  news 
papers.  He  spoke  in  his  usual  calm,  unpretentious  man 
ner,  and  in  tolerably  correct  English,  although  with  a  per 
ceptibly  foreign  accent  and  with  an  occasional  violation 
of  syntactic  rules. 

"  It  was  never  my  intention,"  he  began,  "  to  have  noth 
ing  in  the  paper  except  agriculture.  There  are  other 
ways  of  helping  the  farmer  than  by  telling  him  how  to 
sow  and  how  to  reap  his  crops.  The  world,  you  know,  is 
a  pretty  big  affair,  and  a  great  many  things  are  going  on 
which  it  is  well  for  a  man  to  know,  and  here  in  our  own 
State  and  in  our  own  county,  there  are  some  things  hap 
pen  ing  which  we,  here  in  Hardanger,  ought  to  have  some 
thing  to  say  about.  There  are  the  county  and  the  State 
elections,  not  to  speak  of  our  own  village  affairs,  which 
are  now  governed  entirely  by  the  caucuses,  in  which  we 
Norwegians  have  hardly  a  voice.  And  still  we  are  pretty 
nearly  a  majority  in  the  county.  This,  I  daresay,  is  not  as 
it  ought  to  be  ;  and  what  I  propose  to  do  is  to  establish  a 
paper,  which  shall  speak  out  boldly  for  the  interests  of 


"  THE  HARD  ANGER   CITIZEN."  87 

our  village,  not  only  for  the  interests  of  the  Norwegians 
but  for  all  right-minded  citizens,  who  want  good  repub 
lican  government." 

There  was  nothing  very  profound  in  these  remarks  of 
Mr.  Norderud's,  but  upon  those  members  of  the  assembly 
who  claimed  Viking  descent  they  made  a  deep  impres 
sion.  Three  or  four  of  them  who  had  been  sitting  in 
stooping  attitudes,  with  their  right  hand  up  to  the  corre 
sponding  ear,  now  rose  with  characteristic  Norse  deliber- 
ateness  and  simultaneously  demanded  the  floor.  The 
chair,  after  some  hesitation,  accorded  the  right  of  speech 
to  Nils  Nyhus,  an  old  settler  in  Hardanger,  who,  by  dint 
of  industry  and  native  shrewdness,  had  gained  what,  for 
a  Norwegian,  seemed  a  very  respectable  fortune.  But 
Nils  Nyhus  wras  a  stanch  conservative,  who  had  an  in 
born  repugnance  to  ostentatious  change  either  in  dress 
or  in  politics.  His  present  republicanism  was  of  a  de 
cidedly  Norse-royalistic  complexion,  and  his  clothes  still 
retained  an  indefinably  Norse  cut  and  an  all-pervading 
odor  of  the  stable. 

"Nils  Norderud,"  said  Nyhus,  scratching  himself  med 
itatively  behind  his  ear,  and  grinning  with  a  kind  of 
apologetic  mien,  half-way  between  a  smile  and  a  frown, 
"  excuse  me,  Mr.  Chairman.  I  meant  no  harm,  nohow. 
But  if  you  are  going  to  talk  politics,  then  don't  you  think 
that  you  can  shut  me  out,  because  it  aint  no  use 
to  try,  I  tell  ye."  Nyhus  here  raised  his  voice  into  a 
fiercely  combative  pitch  and  shook  his  fist  with  slow  em 
phasis  at  Norderud,  as  if  implying  that  the  latter  had 
been  harboring  the  darkest  schemes  for  shutting  him  out 
from  the  exercise  of  his  political  rights.  "  No,  sir,"  he 
went  on,  visibly  emboldened  by  the  success  of  his  strata 
gem  ;  you  had  better  not  try  it.  For  if  ye  are  going  to 


88  FALCONBERG. 

talk  politics,  I  mean  to  have  mj  say  about  it,  and  that  in 
spite  of  all  of  ye,  too.  Now,  there  is  the  bridge  acrost 
the  creek  that  runs  by  my  farm,  and  there  is  a  big  hole 
in  it,  big  enough  to  put  your  head  comfortably  through 
it.  Now,  I  should  like  to  know  what  sort  er  gover'ment 
that  is  that  ye  have  in  i  Vashington,'  if  it  lets  things  run 
on  like  that  right  under  its  nose.  There  is  my  big  sorrel, 
him  as  you  called  Lincol',  Nils  Norderud,  though  I  thought 
Socks  was  jest  as  good  a  name  for  him,  he  broke  his  leg 

clean  off  on  that  d d  bridge,  so  I  had  to  shoot  him 

the  next  day,  and  he  bled  all  night  like  a  bull,  and  no 
turpentine  would  stop  it,  and  no  bandaging  neither." 

Here  a  few  of  the  members  present  began  to  show 
signs  of  impatience,  and  Norderud,  with  a  good-natured 
shake  of  his  head  at  Nyhus,  motioned  to  him  to  resume 
his  seat.  But  Nyhus  was  one  of  those  unhappy  indi 
viduals  whose  eloquence  is  rather  of  an  unmanageable 
kind,  and  like  all  ponderous  bodies,  experiences  an  equal 
difficulty  in  getting  started  and  in  arresting  its  course, 
when  once  fairly  under  way.  He  had  long  borne  a  seri 
ous  grudge  against  our  grand  republic,  as  a  whole,  and 
against  the  Johnsonian  administration  in  particular,  for 
the  loss  of  his  valuable  sorrel,  and  this  seemed  to  him  as 
favorable  an  opportunity,  as  any  he  was  likely  to  find, 
for  giving  vent  to  his  just  wrath. 

"  No,  Nils  Norderud,"  he  continued,  in  a  still  higher 
pitch  and  waving  his  hand  in  appeal  to  the  company, 
"  you  shan't  try  to  take  the  word  out  of  my  mouth, — that 
you  shan't  try.  I  ask  these  gentlemen  here  if  it  is  a  fail- 
thing  for  you  to  take  the  word  out  of  my  mouth.  No, 
sir,  it  aint.  And  as  I  was  a-sayin',  I  have  paid  my  taxes 
regular  every  year  since  I  built  my  house  and  broke  up 
my  clearing,  and  if  1  have  done  right  by  the  gover'ment, 


"  THE  HARDANOER  CITIZEN."  89 

the  gover'ment  should  do  right  by  me  too.  I  should 
like  to  ask  these  gentlemen  here  if  that  aint  good  Christian 
ity  ?  And  as  for  my  sorrel,  him  as  you  called  Lincol' — " 

"  The  devil  take  your  sorrel,  whom  I  called  Lincoln," 
broke  in  the  chair,  in  a  voice  of  mingled  amusement  and 
despair ;  "  one  might  almost  think  you  were  as  big  a 
blockhead  as  ever  lived,  Nils,  by  the  way  you  talk,  and 
not  a  shrewd  and  well-informed  man,  as  you  really  are. 
Don't  you  understand  that  we  have  come  here  not  to 
talk  what  you  call  politics,  but  to  agree  upon  some  plan 
for  establishing  a  republican  newspaper  1 " 

"Yes,  Nils  Norderud,"  resumed  the  indefatigable 
Nyhus,  who  had  been  standing  with  his  mouth  open, 
ready  to  avail  himself  of  the  first  pause,  "  I  understand 
that  quite  well,  and  that  was  what  I  was  just  now  a-comin' 
to.  If  you  can  get  up  a  better  gover'ment  with  your 
paper,  that  will  look  after  roads  and  bridges,  then  I  am 
ready  to  pay  down  six  hundred  dollars  for  it,  and  when 
ever  you  want  the  money,  you  can  call  on  me,  and  you 
shall  have  every  cent  of  it,  as  sure  as  my  name  is  Nils 
Anderson  Nyhus." 

The  irrepressible  speaker  having  "  said  his  say "  and 
explained  his  patriarchal  theory  of  government,  now  will 
ingly  yielded  the  floor  to  Norderud's  oldest  son,  a  blonde, 
large-featured  and  broad-shouldered  man,  and  a  good 
representative  of  the  pervading  family  type.  He  spoke 
in  a  low,  modest  voice,  as  if  he  did  not  think  what  he  said 
of  much  account,  and  glanced  up  now  and  then,  blushing 
with  a  timidity  quite  out  of  keeping  with  his  athletic 
frame ;  he  offered  some  suggestions  very  much  to  the 
point  regarding  the  nature  of  the  proposed  paper,  and 
ended  with  declaring  his  readiness  to  contribute  eight 
hundred  or,  perhaps,  a  thousand  dollars.  Thorarin  Nor- 


90  FALCONBERO. 

derud,  the  second  son,  then  broke  the  silence,  and  with 
the  proud,  approving  eyes  of  his  father  resting  on  him, 
delivered  a  little  speech  on  the  expediency  of  forming  a 
stock  company  on  the  spot,  and  offered  to  take  the  same 
number  of  shares  as  his  brother  should  take. 

At  this  point  of  the  proceedings  Mrs.  Norderud,  ma 
tronly,  mild  and  radiant  as  ever,  with  quiet,  unobtrusive 
happiness,  made  her  appearance  in  the  door,  followed 
by  Ingrid,  with  her  long,  yellow  braids  down  her  back. 
The  mother  carried  in  her  hands  a  large  tray,  upon  which 
stood  little  pyramids  of  coffee-cups  and  a  shining  copper 
kettle,  and  the  daughter  supported  a  smaller  burden  of 
sugar-bowls  and  cream-pitchers.  The  chair  could  not 
suppress  a  frown  at  this  unparliamentary  interruption, 
not  because  he  objected  to  the  coffee,  which  was  excellent, 
but  because  he  was,  perhaps,  secretly  ashamed  of  this 
kind  of  Old-World  hospitality  in  the  presence  of  his 
American  neighbors,  who  would,  no  doubt,  think  it  very 
unrepublican.  Norderud,  you  are  aware,  had  just  now 
reached  that  stage  in  the  process  of  his  Americanization 
when  he  began  to  suspect  that  his  Norse  rational  habits 
were  perhaps  a  little  bit  primitive,  and  that  it  would  do 
no  harm  quietly  to  suppress  them,  even  if  this  necessity 
should  'involve  a  small  sacrifice  of  comfort.  He,  there 
fore,  turned  with  a  clouded  brow  to  his  wife,  and,  address 
ing  her  in  her  native  tongue,  said  :  "  Isn't  this  rather  a 
superfluous  thing,  Karen?  These  gentlemen,  you  know, 
have  only  come  to  see  me  on  business."  And  the  wife, 
with  genuine  Norwegian  simplicity,  responded:  "Why, 
Nils,  it  certainly  would  be  a  shame  if  we  were  to  refuse 
wayfaring  men  a  cup  of  coffee  and  something  to  bite  in. 
I  never  heard  you  say  such  an  unreasonable  thing  before.'' 

This  colloquy  took  place  in  an  undertone,  at  the  presi- 


"THE  CHAIR  COULD  NOT  SUPPRESS  A  FROWX  AT  THIS  UNPAR 
LIAMENTARY  INTERRUPTION." 


44  THE  HARD  ANGER   CITIZEN."  01 

dential  table,  and  at  a  sufficient  distance  from  the  guests 
to  prevent  their  hearing  anything  not  intended  for  their 
ears.  Norderud  wound  up  his  remonstrance  with  a  sur 
rendering  grunt,  and  Ingrid  distributed  napkins  ami 
cleared  the  papers  off  the  table.  The  hostess  now  found 
time  to  shake  hands  with  her  two  large  sons,  to  inquire 
for  their  wives,  and  to  scold  them  gently  for  not  having 
brought  them  with  them;  and  the  sons,  in  their  turn,  re 
hearsed  their  oft-repeated  apologies  for  their  oft-repeated 
negligence.  Knut,  the  oldest,  explained  that  Birgit,  his 
wife,  had  just  set  up  a  new  loom,  which  absorbed  all 
her  spare  moments,  and  Thorarin's  youngest  baby  had 
had  an  attack  of  croup,  which,  with  God's  help,  would 
not  prove  very  dangerous,  but  which  was  still  sufficient  to 
drive  all  thoughts  of  visiting  out  of  the  mother's  head. 
If,  he  ventured  to  suggest,  Ingrid  would  go  home  with 
him  and  stay  with  his  Elsie  for  a  couple  of  weeks,  he  cer 
tainly  would  regard  it  as  a  great  favor.  But,  he  added, 
with  a  side  glance  at  his  sister's  fair  face  and  neat  toilet, 
Ingrid  was  getting  to  look  so  much  like  a  line  lady,  that 
he  was  almost  ashamed  to  ask  her  to  put  up  with  the 
country  fare  and  country  manners  which  he  must  offer 
her  out  at  Lumber  Creek.  The  young  girl,  who  since  the 
first  time  we  met  her  had  made  a  greater  advance  toward 
womanhood  than  the  brief  time  seemed  to  warrant,  was 
immediately  summoned,  and  with  some  little  embarrass 
ment  and  hesitation,  declared  that  she  was  now  so  well 
started  in  her  French  and  German  studies  with  Mr.  Finn- 
son,  that  it  would  be  very  inconvenient  for  her  to  break 
off  just  then,  and  that  she  would  at  least  wait  until  the 
holidays  were  over.  From  the  gentle  and  indulgent  In 
grid,  to  whom  a  visit  to  Lumber  Creek  and  her  brother's 
babies  had  hitherto  appeared  one  of  the  most  desirable 


92  FALVONBERG. 

things  in  the  world,  a  refusal  to  so  friendly  a  proposition 
had  hardly  been  anticipated,  and  for  a  moment  caused 
mother  and  son  to  exchange  wondering  glances  ;  and  In- 
grid,  a  little  frightened  at  her  own  boldness,  tried  inef 
fectually  to  hide  her  blushes  by  an  increased  activity  at 
the  coffee-table. 

The  gentleman,  in  the  meanwhile,  relaxed  from  the  un 
wonted  restraints  of  parliamentary  discipline,  discussed 
with  informal  ease  the  journalistic  problem  over  their 
fragrant  coffee  cups.  Mrs.  Norderud,  whose  coffee,  ac 
cording  to  the  universal  verdict,  possessed  a  virtue  of  its 
own,  had  unconsciously  smoothed  the  way  for  her  hus 
band's  ambitious  projects,  and  the  animating  brown 
fluid,  enriched  by  the  sweet  yellow  cream,  imperceptibly 
mellowed «the  combative  temperaments  and  stimulated  the 
latent  generosity  of  the  indolent.  Farmer  Nichols  was 
no  longer  confident  that  newspapers  were  one  of  the 
devil's  chief  agencies  for  the  demoralization  of  mankind 
and  Nils  Nyhus  was  even  ready  to  admit  that,  if  they  had 
had  a  good  journal  in  the  county  at  an  earlier  period,  his 
lamented  sorrel  might  not  have  come  to  such  an  untimely 
end.  Presently  a  paper,  which  the  prudent  Norderud  had 
drawn  up,  began  to  pass  from  hand  to  hand  ;  a  couple  of 
pens,  already  dipped,  were  fumbled  and  minutely  exam 
ined  by  stiff  and  deliberate  fingers,  and  one  autograph, 
of  characteristic  angularities,  was  pensively  added  to  an 
other,  until  at  last  the  stock  company  was  duly  formed, 
and  the  required  number  of  shares  subscribed.  When  the 
main  business  of  the  day  was  finished  and  the  afternoon 
already  far  advanced,  Mrs.  Norderud  (this  time  without 
any  remonstrance  from  her  husband)  took  the  liberty  to 
invite  the  stockholders  to  a  frugal  supper,  at  which  every 
body  took  pains  to  display  the  brilliant  and  amiable  sides 


"  THE  HARDANOER  CITIZEN"  93 

of  his  nature,  and  where  accordingly  a  Babylonic  confu 
sion  of  Norse  and  American  mirth  prevailed.  Thus  "  The 
Hardanger  Citizen  "  was  launched  upon  the  world  under 
auspices  which  even  a  pessimist  would  have  pronounced 
favorable. 

During  the  following  weeks  Nyhus,  Nichols  and  other 
reluctant  sponsors  of  "  The  Citizen  "  gradually  worked 
themselves  up  to  a  fever  heat  of  enthusiasm  quite  unusual 
with  men  of  their  slow  and  conservative  habits.  The 
former  especially  displayed  the  most  laudable  zeal  and 
almost  dogged  Norderud's  footsteps,  persecuting  him  with 
wild  suggestions  regarding  the  future  management  of 
"  The  Citizen."  He  had  even  a  vague  notion  that  he  had 
himself  fathered  this  magnificent  journalistic  project,  and 
persisted  in  sharing  with  his  neighbor  the  honor  of  repre 
senting  it  before  the  public.  Meetings  and  conferences 
were  held  almost  daily,  except  on  the  great  holidays,  and 
the  size,  type  and  political  color  of  the  paper  were  thor 
oughly  discussed.  In  point  of  fact,  it  was  Norderud  who, 
single-handed,  managed  the  whole  affair,  but,  shrewd  and 
clear-headed  as  he  was,  he  cared  more  for  the  reality  of 
power  than  its  appearance  and  consequently  allowed  his 
associates  unlimited  freedom  of  discussion.  He  had  taken 
his  stand  firmly  from  the  beginning  that  the  paper  should 
be  written  in  English  with  the  exception  of  the  weekly 
leader  and  the  column  of  Scandinavian  news,  which  were 
to  appear  both  in  English  and  in  Norwegian  versions.  He 
was  far-sighted  enough  to  see  that  as  long  as  his  country 
men  remained  a  separate  arid  exclusive  caste  in  the  State, 
they  never  could  exert  the  political  power  to  which  their 
numerical  strength  and  their  intelligence  entitled  them, 
and  he  hoped  by  this  little  device  gradually  to  familiarize 
them  with  the  English  language  and  thus  break  up  the 


94  FALCONBERG. 

clannishness  which  they  had  inherited  along  with  their 
blonde  hair,  their  blue  eyes  and  their  stubborn  self-de 
pendence.  It  caused  something  of  a  sensation,  although 
less  opposition  than  might  have  been  expected,  when  in 
a  meeting  of  the  board  he  proposed  to  offer  the  editorship 
to  Doctor  Van  Flint  with  Mr.  Einar  Finnson  as  chief 
assistant.  It  was,  however,  a  serious  disappointment  to 
Norderud,  when  the  popular  doctor  persisted  in  reversing 
this  order  and  assuming  himself  merely  an  unsalaried 
position  as  adviser  and  general  superintendent,  with  Finn- 
son  as  managing  editor.  But  as  every  one  was  aware  that 
the  doctor's  services  were  absolutely  indispensable,  if  the 
paper  was  to  be  a  success,  there  was  no  alternative  but  to 
accept  his  proposition.  Einar  was  of  course  ignorant  of 
the  concatenation  of  circumstances  which  led  to  his  own 
appointment,  and,  after  having  silenced  by  his  friend's 
help  his  conscientious  scruples  in  regard  to  youth,  inex 
perience,  etc.,  he  cheerfully  accepted. 

During  the  last  months  Einar  had  led  rather  a  scholarly 
existence,  and  the  doctor's  genial  example  had  begun  to 
exert  a  soothing  influence  over  his  restless  self.  Van 
Flint's  daily  life  was  full  of  quietly  absorbing  events, 
such  as  the  discovery  of  a  new  authority,  corroborative  of 
an  old  favorite  theory,  or  the  detection  of  an  unpardon 
able  error  in  an  author  whose  judgment  on  Icelandic  sub 
jects  had  hitherto  been  accepted  as  unimpeachable,  or, 
what  was  the  most  exciting  of  all,  the  recognition  of  some 
Northern  myth  that  had  strayed  away  from  its  home  and 
domesticated  itself  in  some  foreign  literature.  When  dis 
coveries  of  this  kind  had  for  the  moment  disturbed  his 
mental  equilibrium,  the  doctor  would  call  out  to  Einar, 
who  would  perhaps  be  giving  a  French  or  German  lesson 
in  the  next  room,  and  during  the  rest  of  the  day  he  would 


"  THE  HARDANGER  CITIZEN."  95 

walk  up  and  down  the  floor  rubbing  his  hands  and  throw 
ing  about  him  absent-minded  glances  of  radiant  content 
ment.  Einar,  who  had  at  first  looked  upon  these  spas 
modic  outbursts  of  feeling  as  one  of  his  friend's  amiable 
eccentricities,  was  now  himself  infected  by  the  scholarly 
contagion  and  could  discourse  as  excitedly  on  a  misinter 
preted  Saga  text  and  laugh  over  the  mistakes  of  a  journal 
of  high  repute  with  as  much  zest  as  the  learned  doctor 
himself.  It  was  singular  to  notice  with  what  fierceness 
Van  Flint,  who  was  in  all  other  things  even  tender-hearted 
enough  to  approach  Cowper's  ideal  of  a  friend  (for  he 
certainly  would  not  u  needlessly  set  foot  upon  a  worm  "), 
could  attack  a  fellow-savant  whose  verdict  regarding 
Snorre's*  chronology  or  the  Norse  discovery  of  America 
differed  from  his  own.  The  abstraction  of  a  million  dol 
lars  from  the  State  treasury  or  the  robbery  of  a  national 
bank  was  to  him  a  venial  offense  compared  to  the  enor 
mity  of  such  a  crime  as,  for  instance,  questioning  the  Saga 
record  of  the  Norse  cruises  to  Vineland. 

Since  Einar  began  to  regale  the  ear  of  rural  Hardan- 
ger  with  his  fantastic  interludes  and  impromptus,  the 
doctor  had  been  very  regular  in  his  attendance  upon  the 
preaching  of  the  Rev.  Marcus  Falconberg  ;  and  the  Rev. 
Mr.  Falconberg,  who  was  far  from  suspecting  the  cause 
of  his  sudden  religious  zeal,  was  already  beginning  to 
flatter  himself  with  the  prospect  of  gaining  a  pecuniarily 
valuable  soul  for  the  pure  and  undiluted  Evangelical 
faith.  The  doctor,  however,  met  all  the  pastor's  innuen 
does  on  this  matter  with  vaguely  conciliatory  smiles  or 
with  evasive  discourses  on  the  historical  aspect  of  the 
period  of  the  Reformation,  and  learned  criticism  of  Lu- 

*  Snorre  Sturlason,  the  author  of  the  Icelandic  Heimskringla. 


96  FALCONBERO. 

ther,  Melanchthon  and  his  fellow  reformers,  for  whose 
iconoclastic  zeal  he  confessed  he  could  summon  very  little 
sympathy ;  but  the  pastor,  whose  native  combativeness 
had  been  strongly  developed  during  his  American  sojourn, 
was  nothing  daunted  by  these  attacks  and  frequently  pur 
sued  his  prospective  convert  even  beyond  the  church  to 
his  own  garden  gate.  Of  Einar,  who  invariably  accom 
panied  them  on  these  promenades,  he  took  very  little 
notice,  only  greeting  him  with  a  careless  nod  and  perhaps 
asking  him  how  he  was  getting  on  with  his  pupils. 

The  journalistic  excitement  which  during  the  Christmas 
week  had  taken  a  vigorous  hold  on  the  popular  imagina 
tion  of  Hardanger  could  naturally  not  leave  the  pastor 
unaffected.  Norderud  had,  without  consulting  Mr.  Fal 
con  berg,  had  a  notice  posted  on  all  the  street  corners  in 
which  he  defined  the  political  platform  of  "  The  Citizen" 
and  further  announced  that  "  all  the  news  was  to  be  had 
for  two  dollars,"  and  that  the  best  intellectual  forces  in 
the  State  had  been  secured  for  the  new  enterprise.  In 
return  for  this  merely  nominal  sum  the  public  were  to  be 
treated  to  "a  display  of  wit,  wisdom  and  erudition  hitherto 
unexampled  in  the  history  of  journalism."  It  was  a 
chance  that  came  only  "  once  in  a  century,"  and  it  was 
the  obvious  duty  of  every  sane  and  patriotic  man  who  had 
an  eye  to  his  own  interest  and  that  of  his  country  to  avail 
himself  of  this  generous  offer  and  at  once  send  in  his  sub 
scription  to  uThe  Hardanger  Citizen,"  P.  O.  Box  12. 
This  flaming  announcement  caught  the  pastor's  eye  one 
morning  in  the  holiday  week  as  he  strode  along  the  dilapi 
dated  sidewalks  on  his  way  to  church ;  he  stopped  and 
read  it  carefully  through  to  the  end,  then  took  out  his 
note-book  and  made  some  memoranda.  The  thought  that 
all  this  political  scheming  had  been  going  on  in  his  own 


"THE  HARD  ANGER  CITIZEN."  97 

congregation  without  his  knowledge  drove  the  blood  to 
his  head  and  hastened  his  footsteps;  and  when,  at  the 
hour  of  worship,  he  mounted  the  pulpit  he  startled  his 
parishioners  first  by  making  a  mistake  in  the  Lord's 
Prayer,  and  secondly  by  an  impetuous  tirade  against 
political  schemers,  who  forget  the  Lord's  kingdom  and  its 
righteousness,  who  vainly  try  to  smother  the  ill  odor  of 
their  inward  rottenness  by  a  display  of  external  magnifi 
cence,  whose  voices  are  like  sounding  brass  and  a  tinkling 
cymbal,  and  who,  having  enjoyed  all  the  good  things  of 
this  life,  are  hereafter  to  be  consigned  to  that  place  where 
the  worm  dieth  not  and  the  fire  is  not  quenched.  And 
to  make  his  allusions  still  more  pointed,  the  preacher 
brought  in  quite  aptly  some  quotations  from  the  platform 
of  "  The  Citizen,"  to  show  to  what  depths  of  depravity 
human  nature  could  sink  and  to  what  lengths  political 
lying  could  be  carried. 

Norderud,  in  the  meanwhile,  sitting  with  his  wife  and 
daughter  in  his  f ront  pew,  listened  with  great  composure 
to  the  heated  eloquence  of  his  pastor,  and  never  stirred  or 
winced  under  the  wrathful  glances  which  now  and  then 
were  flung  at  him  from  the  elevated  pulpit.  When  the 
sermon  was  finished  and  the  inevitable  chorus  of  nose- 
blowing,  hawking  and  coughing  announced  that  the  min 
ister  was  descending  from  his  sacerdotal  throne,  he  joined 
in  that  unmelodious  performance  with  the  zest  of  long 
habit,  and  afterward  lent  his  voice  to  the  exaltation  of 
God,  when  the  strong  organ  tone  gathered  under  its 
shield  of  melody  the  unmusical  outpourings  of  four  or 
five  hundred  rustic  throats.  JSTorderud,  like  many  another 
sturdy  Philistine,  although  quite  destitute  of  voice  in  the 
musical  sense,  still  labored  under  the  delusion  that  he 
could  sing,  and  could  never  refrain  from  chiming  in  with 
5 


98  FALCONBERG. 

a  hearty  discord,  whenever  he  heard  anything  resembling 
sacred  or  profane  song.  I  doubt  if  even  Nilsson  or  Patti 
could  have  daunted  him  or  quelled  his  musical  ardor. 
Now  he  chanted  the  old-fashioned  hymns  with  a  sturdy 
disregard  of  time  and  key,  but  with  an  earnestness  which 
no  doubt,  in  the  eyes  of  his  Maker,  compensated  for  his 
failings  in  point  of  melodiousness.  The  Rev.  Marcus 
Falconberg,  however,  did  not  take  pains  to  penetrate  to 
the  laudable  emotions  which  prompted  the  deed,  and  to 
his  ears  Norderud's  stubborn  discords  had  a  peculiarly 
defiant  and  irreligious  ring  which  disturbed  his  own  de 
votions  and  was  at  variance  with  the  sanctity  of  the  wor 
ship.  And  to  increase  the  pastor's  grievances,  this  same 
irrepressible  parishioner  had  retained  the  Norwegian  cus 
tom  of  reading  the  gospel  and  the  epistle  half  aloud 
with  the  minister,  which,  to  the  latter,  had  very  much 
the  appearance  of  an  attempt  to  correct  and  control 
him. 

It  gave  the  pastor  a  most  irritating  sense  of  his  own 
powerlessness,  that  Norderud,  even  on  a  day  like  this, 
when  he  had  administered  so  pointed  a  rebuke  to  him, 
could  calmly  persist  in  all  his  unpleasant  habits,  and  not 
even  by  an  uneasy  glance  or  motion  betray  that  the  blow 
had  taken  effect.  As  the  worship  came  to  a  close,  Mr. 
Falconberg  was  firmly  resolved  to  address  a  note  to  the 
culprit,  demanding  in.  authoritative  language,  as  became 
a  clergyman,  that  he  should  at  once  desist  from  his  politi 
cal  intrigues  or  sever  his  connection  with  the  congregation. 
But  unfortunately  he  knew  the  independent  spirit  of  his 
parishioner  too  well  to  suppose  that  such  a  move  would 
frighten  him,  and  after  having  ruminated  over  his  dinner 
on  the  worldly  and  pecuniary  aspect  of  the  case,  he  con 
cluded  that  it  was  his  duty,  for  the  sake  of  his  church,  to 


"  THE  HARD  ANGER  CITIZEN."  99 

remain  passive,  until  he  could  muster  a  force  of  opposition 
strong  enough  to  defeat  the  enemy. 

Among  those  who  had  listened  with  a  feeling  of  min 
gled  surprise  and  displeasure  to  the  pastor's  arraignment 
of  Norderud  was  Helga  Haven.  Her  keen  ear  had  at 
once  detected  a  little  shrill  note  of  personal  spite,  amid 
the  sonorous  blasts  of  denunciation,  and  she  could  not 
suppress  the  thought  that  he  had  stooped  below  the  dig 
nity  of  his  office  when  he  made  it  subservient  to  his  own 
paltry  concerns.  To  her,  the  minister  before  the  altar  or 
in  the  pulpit  was  quite  a  different  being  from  the  minister 
in  private  life.  When  he  preached  or  performed  the 
sacred  offices  of  the  church,  he  stood  before  her  in  exalted 
abstraction,  and  was  raised  high  above  the  possibility  of 
criticism.  Whether  he  had  a  squeaky  or  a  full-sounding 
voice,  whether  he  was  eloquent  or  not,  whether  he  took 
snuff,  etc.,  were  matters  which  her  native  womanly  rever 
ence  forbade  her  to  inquire  into.  She  was  not  American 
enough  as  yet,  you  see,  to  look  upon  the  church  as  an  in 
stitution  which  stood  in  need  of  her  patronage  and  sup 
port,  and  the  minister  as  a  prosy  or  interesting  fellow- 
mortal,  toward  whose  salary  she  paid  her  share,  and  whom 
she  had,  therefore,  the  privilege  to  censure  and  to  inflict 
herself  upon,  at  pleasure. 

As  Helga  followed  the  crowd  down  the  aisle  and  with 
the  heedlessness  of  one  conscious  of  a  strong  emotion, 
pushed  her  way  toward  the  door,  she  found  the  front 
vestibule  thronged  with  Sunday-clad  farmers  who,  with 
the  deliberate  gestures  and  the  slowly  kindling  excite 
ment  peculiar  to  Norsemen,  were  discussing  what  all  felt 
to  be  the  great  event  of  the  day.  Outside,  the  snow  was 
falling  noiselessly  in  large,  white  flakes,  and  softened 
with  its  billowy  curves  the  naked  anger  of  the  leafless 


100  FALCONBERG. 

trees.  The  snow-sparrows  were  having  a  chirping  little 
squabble  up  in  the  branches  of  the  maple  outside  the 
church-door,  and  shook  the  crisp  snow  in  a  drizzling  spray 
down  upon  the  bonnets  of  the  departing  women.  Helga, 
quite  forgetful  of  the  new  white  plume  upon  her  own 
hat,  gathered  up  her  skirts  daintily  and  was  about  to 
launch  out  into  the  snow  when  two  umbrellas  were  simul 
taneously  lifted  above  her  head  from  two  opposite  sides. 
She  looked  up  and  nodded  with  undiscriminating  friend 
liness  to  Einar  and  Amund  Norderud,  who  seemed  each 
equally  unwilling  to  yield  to  the  other  the  privilege  of 
protecting  her  against  the  storrn. 

"  I  think  my  umbrella  has  the  right  of  priority,"  said 
Einar,  with  that  well-bred  assumption  of  protectorship 
which  seldom  fails  to  impress  a  woman.  "  I  think,  Mr. 
Norderud,  that  you  will  have  to  recognize  my  claim." 

"No,"  replied  Amund,  with  his  usual  blunt  directness, 
"  I  am  pretty  sure  that  my  umbrella  was  ahead  of  yours. 
But  I  do  not  mean  to  force  my  company  upon  Helga,  if  she 
does  not  want  me.  She  will  have  to  decide  between  us." 

Helga  remained  standing  on  the  steps,  and  looked  with  a 
half-dazed  expression  from  one  to  the  other,  as  if  she  did 
not  quite  comprehend  what  she  was  to  decide.  After  the 
strong  agitation  she  had  experienced,  this  petty  altercation 
seemed  so  insignificant  that  she  had  difficulty  in  bringing 
her  mind  down  to  it.  A  second  glance  at  Amuud's  face 
showed  her  that  he  too  was  laboring  under  a  dumb  excite 
ment,  and  that  he  must  have  felt  deeply  the  injustice  of 
the  pastor's  attack  upon  his  father.  And  with  that  in 
stinctive  leaning  toward  martyrdom  which  is  an  inborn 
trait  of  womanhood,  her  heart  went  forward  with  a  sudden 
tenderness  toward  her  uncouth  and  hitherto  unfavored 
adorer. 


THE 


"I  can  make  no  choice,  Mr.  Finnson,"  said  she,  as  she 
took  Amund's  arm,  "  but  Amund  is  nearest  to  my  right 
arm,  and  I  will  allow  chance  to  decide." 

A  swift  flash  of  color  sprang  to  Einar's  cheeks,  and  as 
he  stood  pondering  on  his  humiliation,  his  pride  rose  in 
self-defense,  and  he  made  an  impotent  effort  to  despise 
both  Helga  for  her  choice  and  Amund  for  his  undeserved 
good  fortune. 

Since  that  day  the  pastor's  influence  over  Helga,  which 
had  once  been  great,  was  irretrievably  lost.  She  felt  as 
if  he  had  inflicted  a  personal  hurt  upon  her,  a  great  in 
jury  which  could  never  be  healed.  But,  such  is  the 
strange  complexity  of  human  affairs,  the  very  event  which 
dethroned  the  arrogant  pastor,  raised  the  humble  Amund 
into  the  sudden  sunshine  of  her  favor. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

INGKID. 

THE  document  which  had  aroused  so  much  indignation 
among  the  pastor's  adherents  in  Hardanger  was,  if  the 
truth  must  be  told,  not  Norderud's  own  composition.  He 
had  even  persistently  opposed  it,  until  Mr.  Bingham,  a 
clever  young  man  from  Maine,  who  had  no  objection  to 
becoming  United  States  Senator,  had  touched  his  tender 
spot  in  accusing  him  of  Old-World  sleepiness  and  igno 
rance  of  the  American  way  of  doing  business.  Mr.  Bing 
ham  was  one  of  those  gentlemen  who  was  vaguely  known 
as  an  agent,  being  ever  ready  to  negotiate  a  sale  for  any 
thing  under  the  sun,  from  real  estate  and  insurance  poli 
cies  to  subscription  books  and  patent  boot-blacking.  He 
was  understood  to  have  followed  the  star  of  empire  on  its 
westward  way,  because  he  firmly  believed  in  the  future  of 
his  country,  and  was,  moreover,  convinced  that  those  be 
nighted  western  immigrants  whose  voting  power  made 
them  still  more  worthy  of  pity  needed  a  guide  and  coun 
selor  of  his  own  caliber.  He  was  usually  referred  to  in 
the  corner  groceries  as  "  darned  smart,"  and  those  disaf 
fected  political  critics  who  sit  on  boxes  in  front  of  grog 
shops  and  indulge  with  equal  languidness  in  profanity 
and  bad  cigars,  were  frequently  heard  to  prophesy  the 
most  brilliant  future  for  him.  If  there  were  political 
bones  "  lying  around  loose,"  he  would  be  sure  before  long 


INGR1D.  103 

to  have  his  finger  on  them.  "  The  Citizen,"  when  it  was 
once  well  started,  and  with  proper  management,  Mr. 
Bingham  did  not  fail  to  see,  would  be  a  powerful  agency 
for  the  accomplishment  of  his  own  ends,  and  he  at  length 
succeeded  in  persuading  Norderud  to  sell  him  two  of  his 
own  shares,  giving  him  his  note  for  the  amount. 

It  was,  as  already  intimated,  this  brilliant  young  gentle 
man  who  had  supplied  the  high-sounding  phraseology  of 
the  advertisement,  and  Norderud,  whose  habitual  taci 
turnity  conld  ill  brook  the  other's  deluge  of  words,  had  at 
last  submitted  with  an  impatient  growl. 

It  was  the  third  day  of  January,  and  the  first  number 
of  the  paper  had  just  appeared.  Einar  sat  at  his  editorial 
table  in  his  well-furnished  office  in  the  Norderud  block,  con 
templating  with  affectionate  interest  the  still  damp  sheet 
of  "  The  Hardanger  Citizen,"  which  lay  spread  out  before 
him.  He  had  never  before  aspired  to  authorial  honors, 
and  to  see  his  thoughts  which  he  had  hitherto  scattered 
broadcast,  heedless  of  their  value,  thus  immortalized,  filled 
his  breast  with  proud  contentment.  The  language,  he 
thought,  was  remarkably  well  sounding,  and  one  stately 
phrase  came  marching  along  after  another  with  a  majestic 
tread  and  a  fine  Ciceronian  roll.  He  read  his  leader  aloud 
with  oratorical  flourishes  of  his  hands  and  dwelling  with 
impressive  emphasis  upon  r's  and  1's,  as  if  he  stood  in 
the  presence  of  an  admiring  audience.  The  sentiments, 
he  was  then  quite  inclined  to  forget,  were  more  than  half 
Norderud's  and  the  doctor's,  but  their  outward  garb  had 
undeniably  been  furnished  by  the  editor.  The  clippings 
were  judicious,  the  typographical  errors  reduced  to  a 
minimum,  the  page  neither  too  much  spread  out  nor  too 
crowded,  and  even  the  advertisements  were  arranged  with 
an  eye  to  symmetry  and  beauty. 


104  FALCONBERO. 

Einar  had  never  been  more  agreeably  conscious  of  his 
own  importance  ;  he  had  suddenly,  and  for  the  first  time 
in  his  life,  got  a  valuable  stake  in  existence.  He  was  sure 
"  The  Citizen  "  would  draw  the  eyes  of  the  nation  upon 
it ;  that  it  would,  in  time,  be  within  its  own  unmetropoliran 
sphere  a  model  newspaper,  and,  perhaps,  raise  its  editor  to 
dignity  and  power.  But  at  this  moment  some  sudden 
memory  disturbed  the  serenity  of  his  countenance,  and  he 
arose  and  began  to  march  excitedly  up  and  down  the 
floor.  With  an  unwonted  vehemence  he  ran  his  hand 
through  his  hair,  and  a  vivid  pain  distorted  his  handsome 
features.  Now,  here  was  the  prospect  of  beginning  a 
clean  life,  unsullied  even  by  the  memory  of  hidden  evil. 
Alas  !  but  if  he  had  the  courage  to  tear  the  veil  of  con 
cealment  from  his  own  past,  would  not  that  life  of  purity 
and  usefulness  of  which  he  dreamed  pitilessly  close  be 
fore  him,  leaving  him  standing  on  the  threshold,  forever 
knocking  and  forever  turned  away?  lie  flung  himself 
once  more  into  his  chair,  leaning  over  the  desk  and  rest 
ing  his  forehead  on  the  palms  of  both  hands ;  and  thus 
he  sat,  he  knew  not  how  long,  dimly  wrestling  with  fitful 
and  impetuous  thoughts, — thoughts  strong  enough  to  cause 
an  agony  of  pain  and  still  too  weak  to  lift  him  above  mere 
contemplation  into  a  decisive  deed.  Then  there  was  a 
gentle  tap  on  the  door,  and  some  one  was  heard  entering. 
Einar  turned  quickly  around,  only  too  happy  to  have  some 
external  impression  push  the  dismal  struggle  into  the 
background  of  his  mind. 

"  Ah,"  he  exclaimed,  with  friendly  eagerness,  seeing 
that  his  visitor  was  Ingrid  Norderud,  "  how  kind  of  you, 
Miss  Ingrid,  to  come  and  visit  me  in  my  editorial  solitude  !  " 

"Mr.  Finnson,"  said  Ingrid,  with  a  little  quivering  of 
her  lips, — for  she  had  evidently  something  serious  on  her 


IN  GRID.  105 

mind, — "  I  only  wanted  to  ask  you — but  you  must  excuse 
my  boldness — I  only  didn't  know " 

Ingrid  had  plunged  boldly  into  her  subject,  but  she 
now  found  that  she  had  not  strength  enough  to  sustain 
her.  Her  lips  again  trembled  and  she  laid  hold  of  the 
door-knob,  and  stood,  with  her  face  half  averted,  glancing 
timidly  at  Einar  with  eyes  of  moist  brightness.  The  school- 
books  which  she  held  in  her  arm  fell  upon  the  floor  and 
she  stooped  down  to  pick  them  up,  but  he  with  precipi 
tous  politeness  had  anticipated  her,  and  thus  it  happened 
that  she  bumped  her  forehead  gently  against  his,  and 
found  a  welcome  excuse  for  giving  vent  to  her  long-re 
strained  tears. 

"  But  my  dear  Miss  Ingrid,"  cried  he,  in  a  tone  of  sin 
cere  regret,  "  a  thousand  times  I  beg  your  pardon.  I  am 
very  sorry  if  I  have  hurt  you.  Come  and  sit  down  and 
let  me  see  if  I  can  do  anything  for  you." 

And  only  remembering  for  the  moment  that  she  was 
weeping,  and  that  he  was  the  cause,  he  yielded  to  the 
overwhelming  tenderness  which  rose  within  him,  laid  his 
arm  gently,  almost  reverently,  about  her  waist  and  led 
her  to  a  seat ;  and  she  submitted  unreflectingly  as  a  weak 
creature  submits  to  the  guidance  of  a  stronger  will,  feeling 
all  the  while  a  timid  happiness  under  his  caressing  touch. 

To  him  she  was,  with  her  short  dress,  her  long  yellow 
braids  and  the  baby-like  roundness  of  her  features,  only  a 
sweet  child  and  his  own  pupil,  who  had  sought  his  aid  in 
some  childish  and,  as  he  imagined,  easily  soothed  affliction. 

"  And  has  anybody  been  unkind  to  you,  little  Ingrid  \  " 
asked  he,  leaning  over  toward  her  and  gazing  into  her 
blushing  face  while  her  convulsive  sobs  were  gradually 
subsiding. 

"  Yes,"  answered  the  girl,  catching  for  breath  and  dry- 
5* 


106  FALCONBERG. 

ing  her  tears  with  her  handkerchief.  u  You  promised 
that  yon  would  teach  me,  and  now  you  don't  do  it  any 
more.  We  haven't  seen  you  for  a  whole  week,  and  I  have 
studied  the  lesson  you  gave  me,  about  the  subjunctive 
mood,  and  written  the  exercises,  but  you  never  came  to 
look  at  them." 

"  But,  my  dear  girl,"  said  he,  still  in  the  soothing  tone 
in  which  one  speaks  to  an  aggrieved  child,  "  how  could  I 
teach  you  when  I  have  had  the  paper  to  attend  to  and 
have  scarcely  had  a  single  moment  to  myself?  Your 
father  would  hardly  like  it,  if  I  were  to  neglect  the  paper. 
Now  you  must  be  a  reasonable  little  girl  and  not  de 
mand  of  me  what  you  know  I  cannot  do." 

Ingrid  looked  up  appeal ingly  and  again  the  tears  gath 
ered  in  the  innocent  blue  eyes.  It  required  more  than 
human  strength  to  resist  their  silent  entreaty  ;  and  Einar 
was  intensely  human  in  this  moment,  and  had,  moreover, 
that  peculiarly  masculine  weakness  to  be  constitutionally 
powerless  against  a  woman's  tears.  Still,  although  know 
ing  that  he  should  in  the  end  surrender,  he  felt  that  he 
ought  to  persist  in  his  tender  remonstrance.  It  gave 
him  such  an  agreeable  sense  of  his  own  strength,  not  to 
say  superiority,  to  be  thus  pleading  with  a  fair  young  girl 
against  her  own  irrational  weakness. 

"  You  will  certainly  understand,"  he  went  on,  "  that  I 
cannot  be  in  two  places  at  once,  and  as  long  as  I  have  no 
assistant  and  have  to  keep  the  office  open  all  day,  I  can 
not  attend  to  my  pupils.  And,  yesterday,  I  sent  around 
notices  to  all  of  them  except  you,  because  I  expected  to 
see  you  personally  before  long.  Don't  you  think  that  is 
quite  reasonable  ? " 

"  Yes ;  but  I  don't  see  why  you  couldn't  go  on  and  give 
me  a  lesson  now  and  then,"  responded  Ingrid,  with  tear- 


INGRID.  107 

f ul  pertinacity.  And  she  met  his  eyes  with  a  sweet  little 
resolute  pout,  as  if  she  thought  she  had  presented  an  ir 
refutable  argument.  Einar  drank  in  the  sight  of  the  fair 
face  and  his  heart  went  out  with  an  irresistible  force 
toward  this  young,  inexperienced  girl  who  valued  his 
poor  instruction  so  far  beyond  its  actual  merits.  All  the 
masculine  fibers  of  his  nature  were  deeply  stirred,  and  it 
seemed  impossible  not  to  stoop  down  and  kiss  those  pure, 
delicately  curved  lips  which  were  still  turned  up  toward 
him  with  their  child-like  pout,  tempting  him  beyond  en 
durance.  But  he  violently  roused  himself,  and  with  the 
same  winning  smile  which  had  unconsciously  beguiled  Iii- 
grid's  unfortified  heart  into  a  willing  surrender,  he  seized 
her  hand  and  said  : 

"  Well,  Miss  Ingrid,  since  you  think  so  much  of  my 
poor  teaching,  I  will  try  if  I  can't  find  an  evening  once 
or  twice  a  week  to  devote  to  you." 

The  girl's  face  brightened  as  if  a  sudden  breeze  had 
blown  away  the  traces  of  her  recent  sorrow. 

"  Thank  you,  thank  you,"  she  cried,  pressing  his  hand 
with  frank  cordiality.  "  I  am  ever  so  much  obliged  to 
you,  Mr.  Finnson.  And  my  father  will  be  so  very  glad, 
too  ;  for,  when  I  asked  him  he  said  that  he  could  not  dis 
pose  of  your  time,  but  1  should  have  to  ask  you  and  you 
would  know  best  what  to  do." 

This  visit  of  Ingrid  to  the  office  of  "The  Hardanger 
Citizen  "  was  no  hasty  whim,  but  the  result  of  a  long  chain 
of  resolutions  and  counter-resolutions.  She  had  first  tried 
all  her  arts  to  persuade  her  father  to  use  his  influence  with 
Einar  to  continue  the  lessons.  But  this  Korderud  had  re 
fused  to  do ;  he  was  very  well  aware  of  the  value  of  his 
own  services  to  his  protege,  but  his  sense  of  fairness,  if 
not  a  still  finer  instinct,  forbade  him  to  ask  a  favor  in  re- 


108  FALCONBERO. 

turn,  where  he  felt  that  a  suggestion  was  equivalent  to  a 
demand.  As  for  the  daughter,  she  could  hardly  appreci 
ate  this  complexity  of  motives ;  she  only  knew  that  she 
admired  Mr.  Finnson  immensely,  and  that  she  was  con 
scious  of  a  tremulous  happiness  in  his  presence  which  she 
felt  nowhere  else.  She  made  marvelous  progress  in  French 
and  German  under  his  instruction,  as  she  was  anxious  to 
gain  his  good  opinion  and  to  appear  to  advantage  before 
him.  lie  had  come  into  her  life  like  a  beautiful,  hitherto 
unsuspected  vista  in  a  familiar  landscape.  A  man  had  to 
her,  before  his  arrival,  meant  a  rather  unattractive  combi 
nation  of  awkward  angularities,  draped  in  loosely  fitting 
attire,  and  enveloped  in  the  mixed  odors  of  grocery  stores 
and  stables ;  but  here  was  a  being  of  the  same  sex  whose 
appearance  and  personal  attributes  seemed  to  lift  him 
above  the  earth  he  was  treading  and  make  him  akin  to 
creatures  of  a  higher  and  nobler  order,  whose  features 
seemed  to  be  cast  in  a  finer  mold,  whose  manners  seemed 
but  the  spontaneous  expression  of  a  gentle  and  refined 
nature,  and  whose  clothes,  without  being  either  obtrusively 
fashionable  or  the  contrary,  still  had  a  kind  of  quiet  ele 
gance  of  their  own.  As  for  his  moral  character,  it  hardly 
occurred  to  her  to  inquire  into  it.  How  could  a  man  who 
was  so  irresistibly  handsome  be  anything  but  good  ?  In- 
grid,  you  see,  had  read  no  French  novels  and  could  not  go 
into  ecstasy  over  picturesque  wickedness.  She  had  quietly 
resolved  that  her  future  lover  should  be  good  and  noble- 
minded,  and  as  Einar  appeared  to  her  very  desirable  in 
this  capacity  it  inevitably  followed  that  he  must  be  a  man 
of  unstained  virtue.  It  was  on  her  part  a  pure  school 
girl's  enthusiasm,  and  as  charmingly  irrational,  innocent 
and  unselfish  as  such  enthusiasms  are  apt  to  be. 

Four  days  after  the  first  publication  of  "  The  Citizen  " 


INORID.  109 

there  was  a  small  sewing  circle  gathered  in  Mrs.  Haven's 

O  O 

parlor.  Helga,  whose  unemployed  affections  naturally  ex 
pended  themselves  in  harmless  charities,  had  early  in  the 
autumn  formed  a  society,  consisting  of  Ingrid,  Ida  Rams- 
dale  (an  American  friend),  and  herself,  whose  object  it 
should  be  to  look  up  the  worthy  poor  of  the  village  and 
supply  them  with  warm  under-clothing  for  the  winter. 
Mrs.  Norderud,  although  she  privately  believed  that  it  was 
a  more  meritorious  act  in  the  eyes  of  the  Almighty  to 
clothe  a  needy  Norwegian  than  a  Yankee  or  an  Irishman, 
had  allowed  them  to  draw  upon  her  for  funds  and  had  at 
the  start  furnished  them  with  a  limited  stock  of  flannels, 
cotton  cloths  and  sewing  materials.  Helga  was  very  much 
in  earnest  with  this  project  of  hers,  and  she  had  firmly 
determined  that  their  society  was  not  to  be  what  such 
societies  frequently  are — a  mere  excuse  for  social  gossip 
and  flirtation.  There  was  no  coffee  and  sandwiches,  and 
the  gentlemen  were  not  invited  to  witness  the  making  of 
the  shirts,  at  the  moderate  price  of  ten  or  twenty-five  cents, 
and  to  lend  excitement  to  the  occasion  by  their  presence 
and  their  jocular  criticisms.  In  spite  of  these  precautions, 
however,  the  first  shirt  which  the  society  produced  it 
would  have  been  a  severe  affliction  even  for  a  pauper  to 
wear,  and  Helga's  ardor  had  been  considerably  dampened 
by  the  sullen  manner  with  which  it  was  received  by  the 
Irishwoman  who  had  been  selected  as  the  first  recipient 
of  their  favors.  In  fact  paupers  were  very  scarce  in 
Hardanger,  as  labor  was  abundant  and  wages  were  very 
high,  and  of  really  worthy  objects  of  charity  the  village 
hardly  contained  a  single  one.  These  were  hard  facts  to 
cope  with  for  a  charitable  association,  but  Helga  and  her 
co-laborers  were  not  easily  daunted,  and  they  persevered 
in  the  face  of  all  difficulties. 


110  FALCONBERO. 

It  was  about  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  on  the  day 
indicated,  that  the  three  ladies  were  seated  around  the 
mahogany  table  in  Mrs.  Raven's  parlor,  fitting  together 
detached  pieces  of  a  flannel  under-garment.  A  large 
genial  monster  of  a  stove  kept  up  a  low,  uninterrupted 
murmur  which  fell  pleasantly  upon  the  ear,  while  the 
burning  birch-logs  snapped  and  crackled  within  and  sent 
forth  a  steady  stream  of  cheerful  warmth  and  comfort. 
A  fresh  odor  of  salted  rose-leaves  (a  reminiscence  of  Nor 
way  to  which  Mrs.  Raven  was  greatly  attached)  pervaded 
the  room,  and  lent  to  the  bloomless  flower-pots  in  the 
window  a  faint  illusion  of  summer.  The  keen  wintry 
day -light,  unrelieved  by  the  remotest  suffusion  of  color, 
fell  with  a  frosty  sheen  through  the  white  lace  curtains 
and  the  jingle  of  sleigh-bells  without  and  the  creaking  of 
the  snow  under  the  feet  of  a  chance  passer-by  heightened 
the  sense  of  comfort  and  serenity  within. 

They  formed  a  very  charming  group,  these  three  young 
girls,  as  they  sat  with  bended  heads  around  the  mahogany 
table  absorbed  in  their  charitable  industry, — Ilelga,  with 
all  the  splendor  of  her  eyes  and  tresses  looking  like  a  fair 
Valkyria  of  the  North,  Ida  Ramsdale  with  her  slim  fra 
gile  form  and  features,  capable  of  intenser  expression, 
and  Ingrid,  with  her  American  birth  and  Norse  parent 
age,  impressing  one  as  a  feebler  variation  of  the  former 
type  or  an  ineffectual  approach  toward  the  latter. 

Miss  Ramsdale  was  small  of  stature,  quick  of  speech 
and  agile  in  her  motions;  her  mouth  and  chin  were  well 
chiseled,  and  her  mouth  of  good  modeling,  although  some 
what  vague  in  outline.  In  fact,  all  her  features  were  ad 
mirable  in  their  design ;  but  the  design  seemed  to  have 
been  but  indifferently  carried  out,  and  the  result,  some 
how,  lacked  finish.  Her  character,  too,  evinced  the  same 


IN  GRID.  Ill 

curious  incompleteness ;  Nature  had  started  with  some 
very  fine  intentions,  but  at  the  critical  moment  had  lost 
its  patience  and  finished  with  a  make-shift.  The  conse 
quence  was  that  Miss  Ida,  in  spite  of  her  apparent  shal- 
lowness,  instinctively  recognized  fine  qualities  in  others, 
and  felt  strongly  drawn  toward  those  who  stood  intellectu 
ally  above  her.  Her  gray  eyes,  which  fairly  brimmed 
over  with  suppressed  merriment,  and  the  nervous  twitch 
ing  of  her  lips  gave  one  the  impression  that  she  was  for 
cibly  restraining  all  her  pent-up,  imprisoned  laughter, 
which  threatened  any  moment  to  explode.  Her  father 
had  emigrated  from  Ohio,  some  five  years  since,  and  was 
now  the  owner  of  several  large  saw-mills  in  the  neighbor 
hood  of  the  village.  Pie  was  a  man  of  narrow  notions, 
rigidly  upright,  but,  for  all  that,  very  difficult  to  deal 
with.  His  principal  sphere  of  activity  he  found  in  the 
Methodist  Church,  of  which  he  was  a  very  zealous  and 
prominent  member.  Nature,  however,  did  not  seem  to 
have  destined  the  daughter  for  a  conspicuous  career  in 
the  religious  community.  Her  native  cheerfulness  made 
the  gloom  of  her  home  oppressive  to  her,  and  she  gladly 
seized  the  opportunity  to  escape  into  the  sunnier  atmos 
phere  which  reigned  in  her  friend's  dwelling.  The  deep 
repose  of  Helga's  presence  gave  her  a  certain  luxurious 
sense  of  rest,  and  soothed  her  own  restlessness.  As  for 
Ilelga,  her  life  had  not  been  too  rich  in  love,  and  she  felt 
a  woman's  need  of  giving  as  well  as  receiving  affection  ; 
therefore,  the  ardent  homage  of  this  impetuous,  nervous 
little  woman  was  very  grateful  to  her.  She  did  not  love 
her  as  she  loved  ID  grid,  but  she  had  a  tender  regard  for 
her  which  was  sincere  and  unaffected.  Her  devotion  for 
Ingrid,  on  the  other  hand,  was  a  long  and  steady  growth, 
dating  back  to  the  earliest  days  of  their  acquaintance. 


112  FALCONBERO. 

While  Ingrid  was  yet  a  little  girl,  Ilelga  had  appeared 
to  her  the  ideal  of  all  that  was  beautiful,  adorable  and 
worthy  of  imitation.  She  still  looked  up  to  her  with  an 
admiration  not  unlike  that  with  which  a  generous-minded 
duck,  conscious  of  her  own  clumsiness,  may  be  supposed 
to  regard  a  swan — as  the  complete  carrying  out  of  all  the 
fine  intentions  which  Nature  in  herself  had  left  unful 
filled — as  the  idealization  of  her  own  species. 

The  three  young  ladies  had  been  discussing,  not  with 
out  severity,  some  of  their  male  acquaintances,  and  Ida 
had  had  the  misfortune  to  select  Dr.  Yan  Flint  as  the 
object  of  her  good-natured  ridicule.  She  was  quite  star 
tled  at  the  vehemence  with  which  both  her  companions 
sprang  to  the  doctor's  defense. 

"  Why  is  it,"  she  asked  in  a  meditative  tone,  which 
sounded  like  recitative  on  a  high  key,  "that  if  three 
women,  not  from  Massachusetts,  come  together,  they  will 
in  the  end  get  to  quarreling  about  some  man  ? " 

"  I  suppose,"  suggested  Ingrid,  timidly,  "  that  it  is  be 
cause  a  little  disagreement  makes  conversation  more  ani 
mated.  And  if  they  were  to  talk  only  about  one  another 
there  would  hardly  be  much  room  for  disagreement." 

"  Ah,  I  don't  know  about  that,"  responded  Miss  Hams- 
dale,  raising  her  eyebrows  archly.  "  I  rather  think  that 
the  reason  lies  deeper.  In  my  opinion,  it  is  very  unfair 
on  the  part  of  Providence,  that  it  has  invested  men  with 
a  certain  unaccountable  fascination  in  the  eyes  of  women, 
something  quite  independent  of  their  personal  merits, 
and,  if  my  experience  goes  for  anything,  I  should  say,  that 
it  is  the  stronger,  the  more  unreasonable  it  is." 

"  Your  experience  must  have  been  a  very  strange  one, 
then,"  said  Helga,  looking  up  from  her  sewing  with  large, 
serious  eyes.  "  I  am  sure  I  could  never  become  fascin- 


INGBID.  H3 

ated  with  a  man  who  had  no  other  claims  to  my  admira 
tion  than  a  handsome  exterior." 

"  Neither  could  I,"  echoed  Ingrid,  softly. 

"  Ah,  don't  you  be  too  sure  of  that,  my  dear,"  exclaimed 
Ida,  smiling  with  a  sort  of  caressing  superiority.  "  A  girl 
is  a  very  contrary  kind  of  creature,  and  is  apt  to  do  the 
very  thing  she  is  determined  not  to  do." 

"  The  man  whom  I  could  admire,"  said  Helga,  dropping 
her  sewing  in  her  lap  and  gazing  out  before  her  with  re 
flective  radiance,  "  must  have  a  strong  will,  to  which 
everything  and  everybody  instinctively  yield,  and  a  lofty 
purpose.  It  would  matter  little  to  me  whether  his  head 
was  bald  and  he  was  small." 

"  And  he  had  a  light,  straggling  mustache  and  wore 
horn  spectacles,"  added  Ida,  with  an  explosive  little 
laugh. 

"  Mere  superficial  brilliancy,"  continued  the  other, 
blushing  crimson  (for  she  readily  recognized  the  picture 
her  friend  had  in  mind),  "  could  hardly  for  any  length  of 
time  satisfy  a  woman's  need.  If  there  is  anything  I  cor 
dially  detest  it  is  a  smooth-faced,  smooth-mannered  man, 
whose  every  word  and  motion  show  that  he  is  conscious 
of  his  own  attractions,  who  wastes  his  energy  in  agreeable 
talk  and  is  incapable  of  any  kind  of  heroism,  either  good 
or  bad." 

"Well,  since  you  have  made  your  confession,"  said  Ida, 
fixing  her  needle  in  the  bosom  of  her  dress  and  throwing 
a  flannel  sleeve  on  the  table, "  I  feel  inclined  to  be  equally 
candid.  I  am  afraid  I  should  be  very  apt  to  marry  the 
kind  of  man  whom  you  say  you  detest.  Heroism  is  a 
very  uneasy,  uncomfortable  sort  of  thing,  and  will  never 
do  for  every-day  wear.  I  like  a  steady,  easy-going  man, 
who  is  no  whit  better  and  not  much  worse  than  myself, 


114  FALCONBERO. 

a  man  who  will  say  pleasant  things  to  rne  when  I  am 
out  of  humor  and  not  vex  me  by  any  high  moral  criti 
cism,  and  by  telling  me  what  I  ought  to  do,  which  I  am 
about  as  likely  to  know  as  he.  And  now,  Ingrid,  it  is 
your  turn  to  unbosom  yourself.  Imagine  that  I  am  your 
father  confessor  and  that  this  is  the  confessional,'*  she 
added,  with  her  merry  laugh. 

And  she  flung  her  arms  around  the  young  girl's  waist 
and  whirled  her  toward  the  recess  at  the  nearest  window, 
where  she  disappeared  behind  the  curtains. 

"Now  you  may  commence,"  she  said.  "I  am  silent  as 
the  grave." 

"  I  don't  think  that  is  quite  fair,"  began  Ingrid,  hesi 
tatingly,  as  she  returned  to  her  seat.  "  1  have  no  objec 
tion  to  telling  you  what  I  think,  but  you  needn't  make  so 
much  ado  about  it." 

"  That  was  the  introduction,"  cried  Ida,  from  behind 
the  curtain.  "  I  wait  and  listen." 

"  Well,  the  man  whom  I  should  like  to  marry,"  said 
Ingrid,  blushing, "  must  have  light  curly  hair  and  blue 
eyes.  He  must  be  tall,  and  have  a  fine  figure  and  elegant 
manners." 

Here  Ilelga,  who  had  resumed  her  sewing,  sent  a  quick 
glance  of  alarm  across  the  table  ;  but  Ingrid  was  too 
much  absorbed  in  her  subject  to  note  the  warning  look, 
and  with  the  same  clear,  child-like  voice  she  continued  : 

"  He  must  dress  like  a  gentleman,  not  too  showily,  and 
not  wear  blue  or  green  neckties.  He  must  be  able  to 
speak  well  and  interestingly,  and  be  kind  and  good-na 
tured  toward  me,  and  not  expect  me  to  be  any  better  than 
I  am.  I  don't  care  much  what  his  position  is " 

"  But  yon  would  prefer  to  have  him  an  editor,"  prompt 
ed  the  voice  behind  the  curtain. 


IN  GRID.  115 

The  pink  blush  spread  over  Ingrid's  neck  and  face,  her 
lips  began  to  quiver  pitiably,  and  two  big  tears  fell  down 
over  her  cheek. 

"Why,  my  dear  little  girl,"  exclaimed  Ida,  with  sudden 
repentance,  springing  forward  from  the  window  and  lay 
ing  her  arms  caressingly  about  Ingrid's  neck,  "you  will 
not  be  angry  with  me,  will  you  ?  It  was  very  naughty  of 
me  to  say  such  things.  Indeed,  I  didn't  mean  it  at  all.  I 
only  wanted  to  tease  you  a  little." 

After  a  few  sobs,  the  tears  ceased  to  flow  and  harmony 
was  once  more  restored.  But  the  little  scene,  insignifi 
cant  though  it  seemed,  left  long  vibrations  in  their  memo 
ries,  and  conversation  seemed  but  a  hollow  device  to  sim 
ulate  interest  in  uninteresting  topics.  It  was  therefore  a 
relief  to  all  when,  an  hour  later,  they  separated  with  mu 
tual  protestations  of  confidence. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

NOKSE   REPUBLICANISM. 

IN  one  of  his  lyrical  monologues,  flavored  with  gentle 
pessimism  and  fragrant  Havanas,  the  doctor  had  fre 
quently  given  vent  to  a  sentiment  which  I  shall  take  the 
liberty  to  quote,  because  it  comes  very  apropos  at  the 
present  point  of  my  narrative. 

"The  barren,  neutral  background  of  our  lives,"  said 
the  doctor,  "  in  these  western  communities,  like  the  dead 
gold  ground  of  a  pre-Raphaelite  painting,  makes  our  poor 
unpicturesque  selves  stand  out  unrelieved  in  all  their  na 
tive  nakedness.  It  lends  no  kindly  drapery  of  inherited 
history  or  sentiment  to  round  off  our  glaring  unplastic 
angularities  and  gather  the  uncouth,  colorless  details  of 
our  existence  under  a  charitable  semblance  of  beauty. 
Now,  in  the  Old  World  it  is  very  different ;  there  the  rich 
accessories  of  life,  and  its  deep,  warm  historical  setting, 
give  even  to  the  poorest  existence  a  picturesque  or  pathetic 
interest.  Here  a  man  has  to  be  something  very  consider 
able  in  order  to  be  anything  at  all, — in  order  to  escape 
from  being  a  discordant  and  unpleasant  fact  in  the  great 
universal  world  harmony.  I  never  felt  more  keenly  my 
own  culpability  in  this  respect — my  own  failings  in  point 
of  picturesqueness — than  when  I  landed  for  the  first  time 
in  England.  And  the  worst  of  it  all  is  that  some  of  us 
are  born  with  a  dim  consciousness  of  our  own  shortcom- 


NORSE  REPUBLICANISM.  117 

ings,  with  vague  aesthetic  cravings  which  make  our  lives 
at  times  utterly  wretched.  In  Europe  we  are  unhappy 
because  we  love  our  own  land  better  than  all  the  things 
we  imagine  we  prize  more  highly,  and  at  home  we  are 
haunted  by  a  lingering  regret  and  a  yearning  for  what  we 
have  abandoned,  which  we  know  beforehand  would  cause 
us  still  greater  misery  if  satisfied." 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  there  were  very  few,  if  any, 
of  the  citizens  of  Hardanger  who  were  capable  of  viewing 
themselves  and  their  thriving  community  from  the  doc 
tor's  aesthetic  point  of  view.  They  were  all  very  proud 
of  their  village  and  had  all  a  sense  of  personal  proprietor 
ship  in  it,  which  immediately  raised  it  above  the  possibil 
ity  of  adverse  criticism.  The  more  enterprising  among 
them  had  vivid  visions  of  a  future  when  the  trade  of  the 
whole  western  continent  should  center  here,  and  they 
looked  with  ill-disguised  contempt  upon  the  aspirations 
of  any  neighboring  town  whose  local  press  had  betrayed 
that  it  cherished  similar  expectations.  Mr.  G.  W.  Bing- 
ham,  for  instance,  could  demonstrate  by  incontrovertible 
figures  that  if  the  village  continued  to  grow  at  the  present 
rate  (and  there  was  no  conceivable  reason  why  it  should 
not)  it  would  within  twenty  years  become  the  natural 
metropolis  of  the  West.  The  undeveloped  resources  of 
the  vast  continent  toward  the  Rocky  Mountains  and  the 
Pacific  opened  up  such  a  charming  prospect  for  the  com 
mercial  imagination,  and  this  probability,  which  almost 
amounted  to  a  certainty,  of  future  greatness  imparted  a 
youthful  strength  and  buoyancy  to  the  business  life  of  the 
village.  Hardanger,  you  see,  was  a  typical  Western 
town ;  it  modestly  regarded  itself  as  a  prodigy  of  intel 
lectual  and  commercial  enterprise ;  it  saw  no  reason  for 
doubting  that  the  hidden  treasures  of  the  Pacific  El  Do- 


118  FALCONBERO. 

rado  would  in  the  end  be  lodged  in  its  pockets,  and  it  chid 
and  ridiculed  its  neighbors  for  entertaining  similar  illu 
sions.  The  average  citizen  admired  his  own  pluck  and 
"  smartness,"  and  was  well  content  with  his  own  lot,  be 
cause  it  had  large  stakes  in  the  future.  He  believed 

O 

himself  about  as  indispensable  in  the  cosmic  economy  as 
any  mortal  on  the  face  of  the  earth,  and,  having  a  fine 
sense  of  humor,  would  cheerfully  have  tarred  and  feath 
ered  any  man  who  dared  to  insinuate  anything  to  the  con 
trary.  Yan  Flint,  therefore,  had  valid  reasons  for  keep 
ing  his  theory  of  western  civilization  within  the  four  walls 
of  his  cottage ;  but  for  all  that,  although  somewhat  super 
latively  stated,  it  had  a  large  measure  of  truth  in  it,  and 
will  in  some  degree  account  for  the  absence  of  romantic 
accessories  in  the  present  narrative. 

"  The  Ilardanger  Citizen  "  was  managed,  as  such  con 
cerns  usually  are,  by  an  executive  committee  elected  by 
vote  among  the  stockholders,  and  Norderud,  holding  a 
controlling  interest  in  the  stock,  had,  as  a  matter  of  course, 
been  made  chairman  of  the  committee.  The  paper  had 
started  with  a  subscription  list  of  about  six  hundred, 
which  did  not  go  very  far  toward  paying  its  expenses,  but 
at  the  end  of  the  second  month  the  number  had  risen  to 
a  thousand  and  the  prospects  were  constantly  brightening. 
Einar  labored  untiringly  from  early  morning  till  late  in 
the  night,  and  the  doctor  still  continued  to  read  the  proof 
before  it  went  to  press  and  was  ever  ready  with  his  kindly 
criticism  and  assistance.  After  the  indolent,  uneasy 
drifting  of  former  years,  when  one  day  followed  another 
in  dim,  purposeless  monotony,  this  fresh  and  healthful 
excitement  of  useful  labor  was  a  most  novel  and  withal 
grateful  experience.  Einar  felt  as  if  he  had  made  a  sud 
den  plunge  into  the  thick  of  life  ;  all  his  latent  ambition 


NORSE  EEP  UBLIGAN1SM.  119 

was  roused,  and  every  fresh  emergency  called  out  new 
and  hitherto  unsuspected  resources  in  his  nature.  For  a 
definite  and  honorable  calling  is  like  the  girdle  of  Thor, 
the  thunder-god, — the  tighter  you  buckle  it,  the  stronger 
you  grow.  Your  capacity  for  labor,  within  human  limits, 
is  in  direct  proportion  to  the  strength  of  your  purpose. 

Einar  had  accepted  the  ready-made  platform  of  his 
paper  without  much  reflection.  It  had  at  first  been 
merely  a  matter  of  dollars  and  cents  to  him  ;  he  had 
neither  the  necessary  experience  to  make  it,  nor  the  right 
to  unmake  it.  But  the  fact  that  his  friend,  the  doctor, 
had  approved  of  it  assured  him  that  it  was  also  worthy  of 
his  support.  Now,  however,  he  had  fully  fathomed  its 
meaning  and  become  morally  convinced  of  its  excellence. 
"  The  Hardanger  Citizen  "  was  primarily  the  organ  of  the 
Scandinavian  immigrants  ;  it  contained  weekly  reports  of 
the  political  and  social  news  from  the  mother  countries, 
but  in  its  editorial  comments  it  assumed  a  distinctly 
American  point  of  view  and  was  throughout  its  columns 
strictly  loyal  to  the  institutions  of  the  grand  republic.  Its 
first  aim  was  not  to  keep  up  the  immigrant's  connection 
with  his  old  fatherland,  but  to  make  him  an  intelligent 
voter,  and  a  useful  American  citizen.  This  was,  indeed, 
a  work  great  enough  to  sanctify  a  thousand  honest  fail 
ures,  great  enough  to  make  martyrdom  sweet,  and  success 
the  perfection  of  happiness.  The  harvest  was  rich ;  thou 
sands  of  immigrants  would  draw  inspiration  from  one 
strong  and  manly  voice,  and  as  Einar,  week  after  week, 
sent  forth  his  words  of  warning,  counsel  and  cheer  to  his 
toiling  countrymen,  he  felt  as  if  it  were  strong  enough  to 
reach  to  the  farthest  limits  of  this  broad  continent. 

One  day,  in  the  middle  of  March,  Norderud  was  sitting 
in  the  office  of  "  The  Citizen,"  glancing  over  some  long 


320  FALCONBERG. 

strips  of  manuscript  which  Einar  had  placed  on  the  desk 
before  him. 

"  That  is  very  good,  Mr.  Finnson,"  said  he,  in  a  tone 
of  profound  satisfaction, — "  that  about  the  ecclesiastical 
tyranny  of  the  Old  World.  Our  own  ecclesiastical  t37rant 
will  find  that  a  hard  bit  to  swallow.  The  clerical  diges 
tion  is  said  to  be  equal  to  almost  anything,  but  I  shouldn't 
wonder  if  this  would  prove  a  little  too  much  even  for  an 
evangelical  Lutheran  stomach." 

"  I  meant  no  special  insinuation  against  Mr.  Falcon- 
berg,"  replied  the  editor,  sticking  a  colored  pencil  behind 
his  ear  as  he  glanced  up  from  his  proof-sheets.  "  But  the 
Norwegian  clergy  in  this  country  seem  to  me  to  represent 
the  senselessly  stubborn,  conservative  element,  which  re 
gards  America  merely  as  a  land  of  temporary  Egyptian 
exile,  and  its  institutions  as  sheer  barbarism  and  every 
way  inferior  to  those  of  the  Old  World." 

"  You  have  hit  the  nail  on  the  head  there,  sir,"  said 
Norderud.  rubbing  his  hands  and  chuckling  with  pleas 
ure  ;  "  and  of  all  the  slow-witted,  pig-headed  prelates 
which  Norway  has  sent  over  here  to  torment  us,  our  own 
is  the  most  dangerous,  because  he  has  got  most  fight  in 
him.  I  don't  think  he  would  be  afraid  to  venture  a  part 
nership  with  the  devil  himself,  if  he  thought  he  could 
beat  me  by  his  assistance.  But  let  him  wait  awhile,  and 
we  shall  make  it  hot  for  him." 

Here  the  door  of  the  office  was  fiung  open  and  revealed 
the  crooked  and  twisted  form  of  Magnus  Fisherman,  who 
had  by  this  time  recovered  from  his  chronic  attacks  of  the 
fever  and  ague.  The  old  man,  with  his  black,  piercing 
eyes  and  hooked,  vulture  nose,  came  hobbling  in  on  two 
sticks,  threw  his  hat  respectfully  on  the  floor,  and  seated 
himself  on  a  bench  near  the  door. 


NORSE  REPUBLICANISM.  121 

"  Good-morning,  Magnus,"  said  Norderud,  with  the 
frank  cordiality  with  which  one  greets  an  old  comrade. 
"  I  haven't  had  time  to  come  and  see  you  of  late ;  but  I 
sent  my  little  wench  down  to  inquire,  the  other  day,  if 
you  might  possibly  need  anything,  and  she  told  me  you 
were  not  at  home  ;  so  I  concluded  you  must  be  all  right." 

"  Oh  yes,  yes,  Nils,"  began  Magnus,  in  his  shrill,  plain 
tive  tenor ;  "  you  are  a  stanch  old  chap,  you  are.  And 
that  I  have  always  said  to  Annie  Lisbeth,  too, — 'Nils 
Norderud  is  a  steady  old  craft,'  I  have  said,  l  straight  and 
sure  both  fore  and  aft.'  We  should  have  been  in  a  fine 
fix,  Annie  Lisbeth  and  I,  by  this  time,  if  it  hadn't  been 
for  you,  Nils,  for  you  are  not " 

"  Yes,  yes,  I  know  all  that,  Magnus,"  interrupted  the 
farmer,  with  a  smile  of  good-natured  indulgence.  "But 
what  I  wanted  to  know  when  I  sent  for  you  was  whether 
those  crooked  old  sticks  of  yours,  which  I  am  afraid  never 
will  be  good  for  much,  are  strong  enough  now  to  allow 
you  to  do  some  work.  We  need  another  messenger  here 
in  the  office,  and  I  have  proposed  to  Mr.  Finnson  that  we 
should  engage  you,  if  you  will  promise  to  attend  to  your 
duties  regularly  and  not  run  off  on  a  wild-goose  chase 
whenever  the  fancy  happens  to  strike  you." 

"  1  guess  it  is  a  pretty  poor  opinion  you  have  of  me, 
Nils,"  responded  the  old  man,  dolefully.  "But  it  was 
my  bad  luck  that  my  mother — God  be  merciful  to  her 
soul ! — brought  me  into  the  world,  like  any  other  water 
rat,  in  a  herring-yacht ;  but,  for  all  that,  I  shouldn't  won 
der  if  I  can  hobble  about  with  thpm  newspapers  of  yours, 
as  they  aint  very  heavy,  and  as  I  have  always  said  to 
Annie  Lisbeth " 

"  Very  well,  then,  you  will  come  here  to-morrow 
morning,  and  Mr.  Finnson  will  tell  you  what  you  have  to 


122  FALCONBERO. 

do.  But,  by  the  way,  I  suppose  you  are  all  right  in  your 
politics,  Magnus, — a  good,  straight  Republican,  eh  ?  " 

"  Republican  !  Ah  yes !  I  have  been  a  pretty  straight 
old  chap,  ready  to  stand  up  early  and  late  for  my  king 
and  my  country, — and  to  risk  a  blow,  too,  if  that  were 
necessary " 

"  King  and  country  !  Are  you  dreaming,  man  ?  "  And 
Norderud  straightened  himself  up  in  his  chair  and 
brought  his  broad  hand  down  upon  the  desk  with  loud 
emphasis.  "  Don't  you  know  that  you  are  living  in  a 
free  country,  where  one  man  is  as  good  as  another,  and 
where  the  law  shields  rich  and  poor  alike  ? " 

"  Sure  enough,  Nils  Norderud,  you  never  uttered  a 
truer  word  than  that.  But  if  God  Almighty  had  cared 
to  make  me  a  gentleman,  he  would  have  done  it,  king  or 
no  king.  And  as  he  didn't  choose  to  make  a  gentleman 
out  of  me,  it  won't  be  of  no  use  for  me  trying  to  alter 
the  will  of  God  Almighty.  And  you  can't  make  me  say 
that  I  am  as  good  a  man  as  you  are,  because  I  know  well 
enough  that  I  aint,  for  I  aint  got  more  than  an  old  axe 
and  a  fishing-rod  as  don't  belong  to  you  or  to  somebody 
else." 

"  Good  gracious !  "  cried  Korderud,  this  time  unable  to 
control  his  impatience.  "  Here  you  have  been  living  in 
a  republican  country  for  twelve  years,  and  probably 
never  once  made  use  of  your  vote.  Possibly  you  haven't 
even  taken  out  your  naturalization  papers  ?  " 

"I  guess  you  aint  quite  right  there,  Nils,"  retorted 
Magnus,  in  a  tone  of  cheery  protest.  "  It  is  some  years 
ago  now  as  two  chaps  come  to  my  house  in  a  buggy  and 
took  me  out  of  my  bed,  for  I  was  down  quite  bad  with 
the  dumb  ague.  And  they  drove  off  with  me  and  gave 
me  a  scrap  of  paper  and  told  me  to  vote  for  Honest  Old 


NORSE  REPUBLICANISM.  123 

Abe.  And  as  I  didn't  know  anything  bad  against  Hon 
est  Old  Abe,  I  got  out  of  the  buggy  to  put  the  scrap  of 
paper  into  the  box.  But  then  some  chap  there  flew  right 
at  me,  and  said,  '  You  aint  a  United  States  citizen,  sir.' 
i  Old  fellow,'  say  I,  'you  aint  got  no  right  to  shake  your 
fist  at  me.'  (  You  aint  got  no  papers,'  says  he  ;  '  you  aint 
no  citizen.'  '  Paper  ? '  says  I,  '  I  have  got  this  paper  here, 
and  I  am  a-goin'  to  put  it  in  the  box  for  Old  Abe,  as 
these  gentlemen  here  have  told  me  to  do.'  *  That  is  all 
right,'  says  he,  f  but  you  aint  swore  off  your  old  king  and 
your  old  country.'  ( Swore  off  my  king  and  my  country  ! ' 
cried  I,  for  now  I  got  real  mad  ;  i  you  won't  catch  me  up 
to  no  such  tricks.  The  king  aint  done  me  no  harm,  so  I 
don't  see  why  I  should  swear  him  off.'  Then  the  fellow 
dragged  me  off,  and  two  or  three  others  helped  him,  and 
1  kicked  and  scratched  all  I  was  good  for ;  but  they  took 
me  and  locked  me  up,  and  didn't  let  me  out  for  three 
days,  all  because  I  wouldn't  swear  off  my  king  and  my 
country." 

Norderud  sat  quietly  listening  to  this  recital  with  an 
expression  of  mingled  amusement  and  vexation.  He  did 
not  care  much  whether  Magnus  voted  or  not ;  but  while 
the  resigned  fatalism  of  his  social  creed  had  something 
irresistibly  comical  in  it,  it  was,  on  the  other  hand,  to  a 
man  who  built  all  his  hopes  of  political  advancement  on 
the  enlightenment  and  intelligence  of  his  countrymen, 
exceedingly  discouraging  to  discover  that  his  boasted  race 
could  produce  such  hopeless  subjects  for  republicanism 
as  the  garrulous  old  blockhead  with  whom  he  was  talk 
ing. 

"  Well,  well,  Magnus,"  he  said,  at  last,  with  a  sigh  of 
resignation,  "  we  won't  dispute  any  more  about  politics. 
Only  come  here  to-morrow  morning,  and  if  you  can  man- 


FALCONBERG. 

age  to  hobble  around  for  a,  couple  of  hours  and  distribute 
the  papers,  I  will  pay  you  handsomely  for  it." 

As  soon  as  Magnus  had  departed,  Einar  broke  into  a 
hearty  laugh,  and  he  and  Norderud  had  some  serious  talk 
together  about  the  approaching  campaign,  each  devising 
ingenious  schemes  for  the  political  education  of  his  coun 
trymen. 


CHAPTEK  X. 

THE   MAY   FESTIVAL. 

IT  may  be  difficult  to  estimate  with  any  degree  of  cer 
tainty  how  much  of  the  largeness  and  cheerful  liberality 
which  characterize  the  present  constitution  of  Norway 
may  be  owing  to  the  influences  of  the  season  which  gave 
it  birth.  From  internal  evidence,  however,,  I  should  be 
inclined  to  believe  that  the  spring  of  the  year  1814  was 
exceptionally  bright  and  genial,  and  displayed  none  of 
those  morose  moods  with  which  even  the  month  of  May  is 
apt  to  surprise  us  in  northern  latitudes.  I  seem  to  hear 
the  lark  warbling  his  melodious  prophecies  of  summer 
through  the  open  windows  of  that  Eidsvold  mansion 
where  the  constitution  of  the  Norsemen  was  framed,  fill 
ing  the  legislative  hearts  with  a  cheerful  trust  in  Him 
who,  holding  the  political  seasons  in  his  hands,  would 
surely  now  send  forth  his  summer  of  liberty  over  the 
land,  after  four  centuries  of  wintry  thralldom.  Perhaps, 
too,  the  swallow,  that  swift-winged  bird  of  promise,  had 
just  returned  from  her  exile,  with  a  few  lingering  notes  of 
the  warm  south  still  re-echoing  in  her  shrill  song.  The 
Norsemen,  with  all  their  native  sturdiness,  have  always 
been  keenly  sensitive  to  these  aesthetic  influences  of  the 
seasons,  and  although  the  theory  has  never  before  been 
advanced,  I  venture  to  assert  that  the  sanguine,  genial 
May  co-operated  faithfully  with  the  stern  legislators,  lift- 


126  FALCONRERQ. 

ing  her  bright  voice  of  spring  in  the  council  halls,  and 
impressing  her  sunny  signature  with  those  of  Rein,  Krog 
and  Nordahl  Brun  upon  the  constitutional  parchment. 
Whether  consciously  or  not,  the  Norwegians  of  to-day  cer 
tainly  recognize  this  fact,  and  there  is,  to  my  mind,  an  es 
pecial  appropriateness  in  their  celebrating  the  return  of 
liberty  and  the  return  of  spring  on  the  same  day — the 
seventeenth  of  May. 

It  argues  no  blame  to  them,  no  disloyalty  to  the  institu 
tions  of  their  adopted  fatherland,  that  whenever  two  or 
three  of  the  Yiking  race  are  gathered  together  on  that 
day,  at  home  or  abroad,  they  unfurl  their  national  ban 
ner,  and  rejoice  with  all  the  enthusiasm  of  their  honest 
northern  blood  in  the  event  which,  more  than  half  a  cen 
tury  ago,  placed  them  once  more  in  the  ranks  of  free  and 
self-governing  nations. 

In  the  Hardanger  calendar  the  seventeenth  of  May  had 
been  set  down  as  a  holiday  of  equal  importance  with 
Christmas  and  Easter,  since  the  earliest  days  of  the  set 
tlement.  During  the  primitive  period,  when  Norderud 
still  lived  in  a  log  cabin,  pervaded  with  the  odors  of  the 
adjoining  cow-stables,  he  had  been  in  the  habit  of  calling 
together  at  noon  his  family  and  servant-girls,  and  saying, 
with  impressive  solemnity :  "  Boys  "  (including  both  males 
and  females  under  that  common  appellation),  "  this  is  the 
day  when  our  country  gained  her  freedom.  We  shall  do 
no  more  work  to-day  ;"  whereupon  he  would  fill  a  foot 
less  wine-glass  with  brandy,  and  present  it  in  turn  to  each 
one  present,  from  the  oldest  to  the  very  youngest.  The 
women,  of  course  had  to  be  urged  before  they  could  be 
induced  to  take  a  sip,  and  sneezed  and  made  wry  faces 
afterward ;  but  it  was  a  tribute  which  every  one  had  to 
pay  to  the  festal  occasion,  and  a  refusal  would  have  ar- 


THE  MA  7"  FESTIVAL.  1 27 

gued  disloyalty  and  a  reprehensible  indifference  to  the 
blessings  of  liberty.  Later  on,  when  the  district  had  be 
come  more  populous,  when  the  log-cabin  had  given  way 
to  a  comfortable  frame  house,  and  the  Norse  conservatism 
to  the  American  spirit  of  progress,  a  tumbler  was  substi 
tuted  for  the  old  broken  wine-glass,  and  the  more  dig 
nified  address,  "  Fellow-citizens,"  for  the  old,  informal 
"Boys."  But  through  all  the  manifold  changes  from 
pioneer  life  to  more  advanced  civilization,  the  seventeenth 
of  May  had  ever  remained  a  day  set  apart  from  the  week 
day  toil  for  bread,  a  day  hallowed  by  great  memories, — 
all  the  greater,  perhaps,  to  the  multitude,  for  being  so 
vaguely  understood. 

Among  the  plans  conceived  by  Einar  and  Norderud  in 
common  for  rousing  their  countrymen  from  their  politi 
cal  apathy  was  the  formation  of  a  Scandinavian  club 
for  political  debate  and  discussion.  The  project,  when 
broached  by  the  latter  at  a  meeting  called  by  him,  had 
been  received  with  more  than  the  expected  enthusiasm, 
and  when  he  had  modestly  refused  the  presidency,  Einar 
had  been  unanimously  chosen.  It  was  this  club  which 
had  now  taken  it  in  hand  to  arrange  the  programme  for 
the  festival  of  liberty.  Before  Einar's  arrival  the  pastor 
had  been  the  self-appointed  orator  on  all  such  occasiors, 
but  as  Mr.  Falconberg's  oratory  was  of  an  antiquated  and 
very  unrepublican  kind,  consisting  chiefly  of  moral  max 
ims  and  exhortations  to  humility  and  submission  to  the 
God-given  authorities,  and  as,  moreover,  the  public  had 
an  opportunity  of  being  edified  by  him  at  least  fifty  times 
in  the  year,  the  club  thought  it  might  safely  venture  a 
breach  upon  tradition  and  confer  the  honor  of  the  speak- 
ership  upon  its  own  president.  The  appointment  was 
accordingly  made,  and  Einar,  who  believed  all  the  world 


128  FALCONBERG. 

as  generous  and  fair-dealing  as  he  was  himself,  could  see 
no  reason  why  he  should  not  accept.  He  had  unlimited 
confidence  in  his  eloquence  (and  what  youth  has  not?) 
and  thought  himself  fully  capable  of  deli\7ering  a  stirring 
oration.  Moreover,  his  brief  editorial  experience  had 
filled  his  heart  to  overflowing  with  things  of  vital  impor 
tance  which  he  wished  to  say  to  his  countrymen,  and  now 
the  opportunity  had  been  providentially  afforded  him  for 
saying  them. 

Aurora,  to  use  an  Homeric  simile,  rose  from  Tithonus's 
couch  in  the  east,  wrapped  in  an  airy  neglige  of  fog.  The 
hills  around  the  town  shone  with  a  misty  radiance,  and 
the  outline  of  the  leaf -forest,  with  its  fresh,  young  foliage, 
stood  softly  defined  against  the  blue  horizon.  In  spite  of 
the  mists,  which  were  slowly  dispersing  before  the  rising 
sun,  the  air  was  buoyant  and  invigorating.  Down  at  the 
little  pier  at  the  end  of  the  lake  lay  two  small  steam  tug 
boats,  gayly  adorned  for  the  occasion  with  Norwegian  and 
American  flags  and  streamers.  They  seemed  so  much 
like  animated  things,  as  they  lay  there  in  their  festal  at 
tire,  rumbling  and  groaning  and  sending  out  from  time  to 
time  exultant  little  shrieks,  as  if  they  shared  in  the  gen 
eral  hilarity.  The  moment  of  departure  was  drawing 
near,  and  members  of  the  committee  of  arrangements, 
with  badges  of  red,  white  and  blue  in  their  button-holes, 
were  running  busily  to  and  fro,  carrying  luncheon  baskets, 
ladies'  shawls,  muskets  of  ancient  and  modern  pattern,  and 
a  multitude  of  other  articles  more  or  less  essential  to  the 
festivity  of  the  occasion.  Then  began  the  exciting  pro 
cess  of  helping  the  ladies  down  the  steeply  sloping  gang 
ways  which  connected  the  boats  with  the  pier,  the  nervous 
little  screams  of  j-eal  or  affected  timidity,  the  soothing 
assurances  that  there  was  no  danger,  the  usual  masculine 


THE  MA  Y  FESTIVAL.  129 

assumption  of  protecting  superiority  and  display  of  agility 
or  unintentional  awkwardness.  It  was  a  scene  deeply  in 
teresting  to  an  ethnologist  or  a  social  philosopher.  The 
mingled  interjections  of  Anglo-Saxon  and  Norse  speech, — 
the  latter  in  all  imaginable  shades  of  dialect ;  the  few  and 
vanishing  reminiscences  of  Old- World  costume,  the  subtly- 
graded  types  of  countenance  and  facial  expression,  show 
ing  the  gradual  adaptation  of  the  old  type  to  the  new  soil, 
were  all  easily  legible  characteristics  of  a  society  which 
is  still  in  the  process  of  formation, — a  society  in  which 
two  struggling  civilizations  meet,  and  slowly  blend  to 
gether,  forming  a  new  and  hitherto  unknown  unit.  There 
were  women  of  all  degrees  of  rusticity,  some  intensely 
conscious  of  their  bonnets,  and  belonging  manifestly  to 
that  order  which  has  but  one  dress  for  week-day  and  one 
for  holiday  wear  ;  there  were  others  who  had  just  begun 
to  make  the  first  uneasy  discoveries  of  their  own  social 
deficiencies,  and  whose  attire  displayed  ineffectual  and 
often  grotesque  aspirations  toward  ladyhood,  and  there 
were  again  others  whose  costume  and  bearing  had  that 
instinctive  grace,  that  soft  tranquillity  which  is  the  gift  of 
birth  and  is  but  slowly  acquired.  But  all  these  people 
were  grouped  about  on  the  pier  in  a  very  democratic 
fashion,  and  talked,  laughed  and  exchanged  familiar 
greetings  with  an  ease  and  abandonment  which  gave  em 
phatic  evidence  of  the  equalizing  influences  of  pioneer  life 
and  American  democracy. 

Since  the  disagreement  about  the  umbrella,  Einar  had 
preserved  a  studied  indifference  toward  Miss  Raven,  and 
devoted  himself  with  increased  assiduity  to  Miss  Nor- 
derud's  instruction ;  but  now  the  inspiration  of  the  great 
day  pervaded  his  being  like  a  warm  glow,  and  all  petty 
feelings  were  drowned  in  the  strong  current  of  patriotism. 
6*  * 


130  FALCON  BERG. 

The  sense  of  a  common  origin  which  is  always  so  powerful 
a  motive  in  a  foreign  land  seemed  ten  times  intensified  on 
this  day  ;  a  great  common  memory  stirred  every  generous 
iiber  in  the  Norsemen's  bosoms,  drove  personal  animosities 
out  of  sight  and  made  them  but  remember  that  they  were 
all  Goths, — that  they  had  all  sprung  from  the  strong,  fair, 
broad-breasted,  mountain-guarded  Saga-land  beyond  the 
sea. 

As  the  gangways  were  hauled  in  and  both  steamers 
glided  out  upon  the  lake,  the  whole  multitude,  as  with  one 
impulse,  joined  their  voices  in  the  national  song,  "  Sons  of 
Old  Norway."  The  mist  still  lingered  in  the  air,  although 
it  was  half  transparent,  and  lay  upon  the  water  like  a 
thin,  white  veil ;  and  the  song  floated  away  and  mingled 
with  the  mist,  and  they  rose  together  up  into  the  joyous 
spring  sunshine.  At  last  there  was  neither  mist  nor  Bong; 
for  a  brief  moment  all  was  silence. 

"  What  a  glorious  day  this  is !  "  said  Ilelga  to  Einar. 
They  were  sitting  together  on  camp-stools  in  the  prow  of 
one  of  the  steamers,  she  clad  in  a  soft  gray  dress,  which, 
like  everything  that  was  hers,  seemed  a  wonder  of  grace 
and  simplicity,  he,  arrayed  as  the  occasion  required,  in  a 
dress-coat,  with  a  white  neck-tie,  and  with  a  black,  shining 
cylinder  on  his  head. 

"  It  is  a  tradition  we  have  in  Norway,"  answered  he, 
"that  the  seventeenth  of  May  must  be  as  fair  as  God  can 
make  it,  and  I  should  suspect  that  the  patriotism  of  my 
countrymen  here  was  on  the  decline  if  they  departed  from 
the  old  tradition." 

"  Tell  me  something  about  Norway,"  said  she,  after  a 
brief  pause.  "  You  know  I  am  one  of  those  unfortunate 
creatures  who  really  belong  nowhere.  I  was  carried 
away  from  Norway  before  I  had  fairly  struck  root  there, 


THE  MA  T  FEST1 VAL.  131 

but  when  I  was  still  too  old  to  become  thoroughly  domes 
ticated  in  the  new  soil  into  which  I  was  transplanted.  I 
am  too  much  of  an  American,  I  imagine,  to  be  perfectly 
happy  in  Norway,  and  yet  too  much  of  a  Norwegian  to 
feel  perfectly  at  home  here." 

rt  You  have  stated  very  pointedly  the  great  problem  of 
an  immigrant's  existence,"  replied  Einar,  with  animation. 
"  And  since  you  have  to  make  the  best  of  your  present 
situation,  and  remain  where  you  are,  I  should  be  doing 
you  a  very  poor  service,  if  I  were  to  call  to  life  the  dor 
mant  longings  for  your  native  land.  It  is  far  better  to 
suppress  them.  Let  us  not  forget  that  we  are  all  Norse 
men,  but  if  we  are  not  forever  to  remain  exiles,  let  us 
first  of  all  remember  that  we  are  also,  or  ought  to  be, 
Americans.  That  is  the  lesson  I  am  going  to  proach  to 
my  countrymen  and  countrywomen  to-day,  and  if  I  shall 
but  succeed  in  pleasing  one  among  them  whom  I  have  in 
mind,  I  shall  be  the  happiest  man  the  sun  ever  shone  upon." 

"You  mean  Mr.  Norderud,"  said  Ilelga,  innocently. 
"  Yes,  a  great  deal  depends  upon  your  pleasing  him. 
But  then,  you  know,  he  is  always  ready  to  be  pleased  at 
what  you  do  and  say ;  so  I  should  have  no  fears  on  that 
score." 

"  The  person  I  refer  to  is  far  more  difficult  to  please 
than  Mr.  Norderud." 

Here  a  member  of  the  committee  of  arrangements 
whispered  something  in  Einar's  ear,  and  he  arose  hurried 
ly,  and  excused  himself.  A  minute  later  his  fine  tenor 
was  heard  in  the  double  quartette,  sustaining,  with  a  clear, 
soft  precision,  the  difficult  solo  in  Kjerulf's  "  The  Wed 
ding  Party  on  the  Hardanger  Fjord."  Helga  sat  listen 
ing  with  rapt  attention,  but  still  vaguely  wondering  to 
whom  his  words  alluded  and  hoping  that  it  might  be  In- 


132  FALCONBERG. 

grid.  Now  one  song  followed  another  in  rapid  succession, 
until  the  whole  party,  at  about  ten  o'clock,  landed  on  an 
improvised  pier  at  the  foot  of  a  deep  ravine,  where  a 
large  tent  was  raised  and  preparations  had  been  previous 
ly  made  for  their  reception.  The  place  had  evidently 
been  chosen  because  the  scenery  was  supposed  to  suggest 
Norway ;  although  to  an  aesthetic  eye  the  resemblance 
must  have  been  very  remote.  It  was  one  of  those  broad, 
forest-clad  gorges  which  at  every  third  or  fourth  mile 
break  the  monotony  of  the  landscape  around  the  lakes  of 
Minnesota  and  central  New  York.  In  the  midst  of  gently 
sloping,  fertile  plains  a  yawning  abyss,  with  huge  chao 
tic  upheavals  and  a  primeval  wildness  of  aspect,  opens 
abruptly  at  your  feet,  as  if  Nature,  conscious  of  her 
deficiency  in  point  of  picturesqueness,  had  had  a  sudden 
attack  of  waywardness,  only  to  show  that  her  early  strength 
had  not  quite  forsaken  her.  The  bottom  of  the  ravine 
was  covered  with  sprouting  maples  and  birches,  and  here 
and  there  with  patches  of  fine,  light  grass.  A  small 
stream  broke  over  the  edge  of  the  rock  and  dashed  in  a 
series  of  cascades  toward  the  lower  plain,  winding  thence 
onward  over  a  broad,  pebbly  bed  and  descending  with 
ever  gentler  murmur  to  the  glittering  lake. 

As  soon  as  the  passengers  had  disembarked,  the  steam 
ers  started  once  more  for  the  town  and  returned  toward 
noon  with  a  second  load,  the  greater  part  of  whom  were 
business  men,  both  Norse  and  American.  Einar  then  as 
cended  the  rostrum,  which  was  appropriately  adorned  with 
the  combined  colors  of  Norway  and  the  United  States, 
and,  with  a  wildly  palpitating  heart,  stood  listening  to 
the  cheers  of  the  multitude.  And  when  at  last  the  noise 
subsided,  he  broke  out  with  a  clear,  youthful  ring  in  his 
voice : 


THE  MA  T  FESTIVAL.  133 

"  Norsemen,  fellow-citizens." 

"  Oh,  how  handsome  he  is ! "  whispered  Ingrid,  who 
stood  leaning  on  Helga's  arm  some  twenty  or  thirty  steps 
from  the  platform. 

"  Hush,  dear  1 "  whispered  Helga,  in  response,  and 
pressed  Ingrid- s  hand  more  closely  in  hers.  There  was  a 
great  surging  and  eddying  motion  in  the  throng;  all 
pressed  nearer  to  the  speaker,  and  stood  with  expectant, 
upturned  faces. 

"  There  was  a  time,  now  centuries  ago,  when  a  strong 
arm  and  an  unbending  spirit  were  the  greatest  inheritan 
ces  a  father  could  bequeath  to  his  son.  In  those  days  our 
forefathers  roamed  over  the  wide  world,  holding  the  des 
tinies  of  nations  in  their  hands  ;  for  our  forefathers  were 
strong ;  they  knew  not  fear ;  their  joy  was  war ;  their 
pathway  went  from  victory  to  victory ;  their  glory  was  to 
conquer  and  to  die.  How  often  did  the  domes  of  cathe 
drals  re-echo  in  those  days  with  the  cry  :  <  Deliver  us,  O 
God,  from  the  fury  of  the  Norsemen  ! '  In  Normandy,  in 
England,  in  Italy,  and  even  in  the  far  East  our  fathers 
have  left  the  imperishable  tracks  of  their  conquering 
march.  The  Anglo-Saxons  of  to-day  count  it  an  honor  to 
be  able  to  trace  their  blood  back  to  the  conquerors  of  the 
North.  The  proud  aristocracy  of  England  boast  that  it  is 
our  blood  which  flows  in  their  veins.  But  the  time  when 
rude  physical  strength  was  a  people's  chief  claim  to  glory 
is  now  happily  past.  And  did  our  glory  perish  with  that 
age  ?  To  a  superficial  vision  which  does  not  penetrate 
beneath  the  appearances  of  things  it  certainly  seems  as  if 
it  did.  The  voice  of  Norway  is  now  but  feebly  heard  in 
the  councils  of  nations  ;  our  sword  and  our  war-cry  do  no 
longer  strike  terror  to  the  hearts  of  our  enemies ;  no 
prayers  for  deliverance  from  us  rise  toward  the  throne  of 


134  FALCONBERG. 

God,  for  no  one  fears  us.  It  is  an  undeniable  truth,  bit 
ter  as  it  may  seem,  that  we  have  retired  from  the  visible 
arena  of  the  world's  history.  But  the  great  event  which 
we  celebrate  this  day  loudly  proclaims  that  our  power  has 
not  yet  perished,  that  there  is  yet  health  and  strength  in 
us  to  regain  what  we  have  lost, — regain  it,  not  with  the 
sword,  but  with  the  gentler  and  yet  potent  agencies  which 
an  advanced  civilization  has  placed  in  our  hands. 

"  This  strange  movement  which  we  call  emigration,  and 
over  which  theorists  and  social  philosophers  have  pon 
dered  in  vain,  is  one  of  these  agencies,  and  perhaps  the 
most  important  of  all.  Once,  nearly  nine  centuries  ago, 
we  planted  our  foot  upon  the  virgin  soil  of  Vineland,* 
and  still  the  glory  of  its  discovery  does  not  belong  to  us. 
Once  more  in  the  present  age  we  have  returned  to  our  lost 
heritage,  not  to  conquer  it  with  force,  but  to  share  peace 
fully  with  other  nations  in  the  abundance  of  its  blessings. 
Here  in  this  wondrous  land  a  new  and  great  people  is 
being  born  ;  a  new  and  great  civilization,  superior  to  any 
the  world  has  ever  seen,  is  in  the  process  of  formation.  It 
would  be  a  foolish  and  ineffectual  labor  if  we  were  to  try 
to  preserve  our  nationality  intact,  if  we  were  to  cling  to 
our  inherited  language  and  traditional  prejudices,  and  en 
deavor  to  remain  a  small  isolated  tribe,  forming  no  organic 
part  of  this  great  people  with  which  our  lot  is  cast.  For 
one  generation  we  may  appear  to  succeed,  but  the  success 
would  be  a  very  tragical  one  and  hardly  worth  the  labor. 
And  our  children  and  grandchildren,  yielding  uncon 
sciously  to  the  tide  which  irresistibly  sweeps  them  onward, 
would  soon  unlearn  what  we  had  taught  them  and  undo 

*  The  name  given  by  the  Norse  discoverers  to  the  American  conti 
nent. 


THE  MA  Y  FESTIVAL.  135 

what  we  had  accomplished.  But  even  if  we  abandon 
these  external  claims  to  distinctive  Norsedom,  however 
dear  they  may  seem  to  us,  we  shall  retain  those  deeper 
and  unextinguishable  traits  which  truly  constitute  our 
nationality,  and  these  our  children  will  inherit,  and  they 
will  be  ingrafted  upon  the  new  stock  and  mingle  with  the 
warm  heart-blood  of  the  nation  which  is  being  born,  and 
it  will  be  the  greater  and  the  stronger  for  what  it  shall  owe 
to  us.  The  best  productions  of  our  art  and  our  literature 
will  become  known  and  will  exert  a  quiet,  gradual  influ 
ence  upon  the  art  and  literature  of  those  among  whom  we 
live,  until,  at  last,  by  a  silent  process  of  organic  absorption 
they  will  pervade  with  a  thousand  other  influences  the 
grand  civilization  which  the  future  hides  in  its  bosom. 
Our  children,  feeling  themselves  no  longer  as  strangers 
but  as  heirs  to  the  soil,  will  exert  their  power  in  the  vari 
ous  walks  of  life,  and  the  sturdy  Gothic  qualities  inherent 
in  our  blood  will  survive  in  our  American  descendants 
and  will  add  strength  to  the  future  race. 

"  No  doubt  many  of  you,  in  whose  ears  the  loud  deeds 
of  our  ancestors  are  still  re-echoing,  will  think  this  an 
humble  destiny  for  a  people  once  so  proud  as  ours.  But 
let  us  fearlessly  open  our  eyes  to  the  modes  of  working 
which  God  employs  for  the  advancement  of  the  race.  The 
far-resonant  conquests  of  our  fathers  which  our  bards  are 
still  commemorating  m  song  and  story, — what  traces  have 
they  left  behind  them,  except  these  silent  and  invisible 
ones,  these  decisive  and  yet  half  imperceptible  modifica 
tions  of  the  character,  life  and  society  of  the  succeeding 
ages  ?  Is  Norse  speech  ever  heard  to-day  in  England  or 
in  Normandy?  The  Norse  songs  and  traditions  which 
Duke  Hollo  and  his  followers  brought  with  them  from 
their  home,  did  they  remain  distinct  and  intact,  asserting 


136  FALCONBERQ. 

their  nationality  against  all  foreign  encroachments  ?  No ; 
they  mingled  with  the  life-blood  of  the  conquered  nation. 
They  did  not  perish;  they  modified  the  future;  they  are 
alive,  though  invisibly  and  silently  alive,  unto  this  day. 
Therefore,  my  countrymen,  let  us  not  foolishly  and  stub 
bornly  cling  to  the  semblances  of  nationality,  and  lose  its 
reality,  its  deeper  essence.  Let  us  not  transplant  that 
which  is  accidental  and  evanescent  in  our  old  life  upon 
the  new  soil.  Let  us  be  alive  to  the  larger  needs  of  the 
day  in  which  we  live,  asserting  ourselves  fearlessly  as 
Norsemen,  still  ever  remembering  that  if  our  lives  are  not 
to  be  spent  in  vain,  we  must  first  of  all  be  Americans." 

A  feeble  and  scattered  cheer  here  interrupted  the  ora 
tor,  and  a  few  groans  were  heard  from  the  outskirts  of  the 
crowd.  Norderud,  who  was  sitting  on  a  bench  at  the  foot 
of  the  platform,  then  raised  his  voice  in  a  mighty  hurrah 
which  awakened  a  more  general  response,  and  the  groans 
which  seemed  to  come  from  a  party  of  young  men  who 
had  gathered  around  the  pastor  were  silenced.  Ingrid 
was  quivering  with  sympathetic  excitement ;  she  clung 
more  closely  to  Helga  while  her  eyes  hung  upon  the  face 
of  the  speaker  with  irresistible  fascination.  Einar,  who 
during  the  pause  had  quickly  scanned  his  audience, 
caught  her  eye,  and  the  sight  of  the  eager  young  face  sent 
a  sudden  warm  thrill  through  him  and  strengthened  his 
waning  courage.  He  went  on  in  a  tone  of  calm  confi 
dence  strangely  at  variance  with  his  inward  agitation  ; 
defined  in  brief,  incisive  sentences  the  historical  signifi 
cance  of  the  day,  and  reviewed  eloquently  the  great 
memories  which  clustered  around  it.  Here  he  struck 
skillfully  those  national  chords  which  never  fail  to  vibrate 
even  to  the  gentlest  touch.  Great  shouts  of  applause 
shook  the  air ;  a  smile  of  intense  satisfaction  illuminated 


THE  MA  T  FESTIVAL.  137 

Norderud's  square-cut  features,  and  Ingrid  breathed 
freely,  as  if  a  great  burden  had  been  lifted  from  her 
bosom.  The  constitution  of  the  seventeenth  of  May, 
Einar  said,  embodied  a  principle  which  was  closely  akin 
to  that  which  the  Americans  had  announced  in  their 
Declaration  of  Independence.  If  the  Norsemen  of  the 
United  States  helped  to  carry  out  in  its  true  spirit  this 
declaration,  remaining  ever  faithful  to  the  honesty  and 
lofty  self-dependence  which  they  had  imbibed  with  their 
mother's  milk,  they  would  be  celebrating  in  the  highest 
sense  their  own  day  of  liberty.  He  now  spoke  with  a 
happy  freedom  and  earnestness  which  stirred  the  deepest 
depth  of  his  listeners'  nature.  He  chose  his  metaphors 
from  the  life  which  moved  daily  under  their  very  eyes, 
and  his  warm  appeals  went  straight  to  their  hearts. 
When  he  descended  from  the  rostrum  the  members  of  the 
Scandinavian  Club,  in  spite  of  his  protests,  raised  him 
upon  their  shoulders  amid  the  wild  cheering  of  the  multi 
tude.  That  was  too  much  for  Ingrid ;  the  long-restrained 
agitation  overpowered  her,  and  she  burst  into  tears.  But 
happily  no  one  noticed  her,  and  Helga  hurried  her  up 
through  the  ravine,  where  the  trees  soon  hid  them  both 
from  sight. 

Einar's  speech  was  published  the  next  day  verbatim  in 
"  The  Citizen,"  and  Norderud,  who  found  here  a  clear 
and  eloquent  statement  of  his  own  political  creed,  had  it 
afterward  printed  in  pamphlet  form  and  liberally  distri 
buted  among  friends  and  enemies. 


CHAPTER  XL 

A   MEMORABLE   MEETING. 

DURING  the  dinner  which  followed.  Einar  looked  every 
where  for  Helga  and  Ingrid,  but  they  were  nowhere  to 
be  found.  In  the  meanwhile  he  had  to  answer  toast  upon 
toast,  and  in  the  interval  between  the  speeches  he  was  be 
leaguered  by  farmers'  wives  who  came  up  to  shake  hands 
with  him  and  with  much  friendly  urging  insisted  upon 
his  tasting  the  contents  of  their  baskets.  They  assured 
him  in  their  own  simple  fashion  of  their  approval,  de 
clared  that  he  "  talked  like  a  priest,"  and  without  the 
least  suspicion  of  patronage  complimented  him  on  his 
handsome  appearance.  Nils  Nyhus  offered  a  toast  for 
"  The  Citizen,"  in  which  he  paid  fresh  tribute  to  the 
memory  of  his  lamented  sorrel,  expressed  his  dissatisfac 
tion  with  Andy  Johnson's  administration  and  predicted  a 
brilliant  future  for  the  town  of  Hardanger.  He  seemed 
still  to  be  laboring  under  the  delusion  that  the  idea  of 
establishing  the  paper  had  originated  in  his  own  brain, 
but  was  generous  enough  to  grant  his  colleagues  a  share 
of  the  honor.  The  speech  called  forth  much  merriment 
and  hearty  acclamation,  which,  however,  only  added  to 
the  discomfort  of  Nyhus's  wife,  who  was  sitting  flushed 
and  trembling  at  his  side.  She  had  never  known  him  in 
the  capacity  of  an  orator  before,  and  she  could  not  rid 


A  MEMORABLE  MEETING.  139 

herself  of  the  impression  that  the  company  were  amusing 
themselves  at  his  expense. 

Up  toward  the  end  of  the  ravine  where  the  trees  stood 
denser  and  the  noise  of  the  waters  was  louder,  sat  Helga 
and  Ingrid.  A  thick  copse  of  pine  sheltered  them  from 
sight,  and  the  gray  rock,  dashed  here  and  there  with 
patches  of  red  and  yellow  lichen,  rose  steep  and  threaten 
ing  above  them.  The  sprouting  leaves  filled  the  air  with 
a  fresh  fragrance,  to  which  the  pines  added  a  resinous 
flavor.  The  two  girls  sat  each  with  one  arm  twined  about 
the  other's  waist,  while  the  elder  with  the  hand  which 
was  disengaged  stroked  the  hair  caressingly  from  the 
younger's  forehead.  They  were  talking  together  in  an 
undertone,  and  the  near,  unceasing  rush  of  the  water 
seemed  to  lift  a  shielding  roof  over  their  voices  and  make 
their  confidence  safer  and  easier. 

"  It  certainly  was  very  imprudent  of  my  little  girl," 
said  Helga,  "  to  burst  into  tears  there  before  all  the  peo 
ple.  It  was  fortunate  that  he  was  too  busy  to  notice 
you." 

"  But  how  could  I  help  it  ?  "  protested  Ingrid,  eagerly. 
"  It  came  upon  me  so  suddenly  that  I  had  no  time  to 
think.  I  don't  know  why  God  made  me  so,  that  I  must 
always  cry  when  I  don't  want  to  do  it  at  all.  It  was  not 
for  Mr.  Finnson  that  1  cried,  as  you  think,  but  only  be 
cause  I  felt  so  strange,  and  because  I  couldn't  help  it." 

"  Yes,  because  you  felt  so  strange,  and  because  you 
couldn't  help  it,"  repeated  the  other,  smiling  at  the  capri 
ces  of  Ingrid's  logic.  "  And  do  you  imagine,  you  little 
chicken,  that  I  have  not  read  long  ago  that  very  transpa 
rent  secret  which  you  are  trying  to  hide  from  me  \ " 

Ingrid  raised  herself  quickly  and  gazed  at  her  friend 
with  terror  in  her  large  blue  eyes. 


140  FALCONBERG. 

"  You  do  not  suppose  that — that  anybody  else " 

"  You  need  not  look  so  frightened,"  and  Helira  clasped 
her  once  more  in  her  arms.  "  No,  I  don't  suppose  that 
others  have  as  keen  eyes  for  reading  your  heart  as  I  have. 
But  now  be  a  good  little  girl  and  promise  me  one  thing. 
Promise  me  that  you  will  be  very,  very  prudent,  always 
on  your  guard,  and  never  describe  the  man  you  would 
like  to  marry,  never  say  that  he  must  have  light  curly 
hair  and  blue  eyes,  and  so  forth." 

"  But  I  never  said  that  I  should  like  to  marry  Mr. 
Finnson,"  rejoined  Ingrid,  once  more  with  her  little  per 
verse  pout.  "  And  I  don't  think  I  ever  shall  marry,  for 
that  matter.  But  still  I  love  him — love  him,"  lingering 
fondly  on  the  word.  "  And,"  she  added,  with  a  sudden 
trustful  appeal  to  Ilelga,  "don't  you  think  he  is  very, 
very  beautiful  ? " 

'*  I  don't  know,  my  dear,  what  I  think  of  him.  lie  is 
one  of  those  men  who  constantly  puzzle  me.  I  hope  and 
believe  that  he  is  a  good  and  upright  man,  but  that  is  as 
far  as  my  j  udgment  goes.  I  am  sorry,  for  your  sake,  that 
I  cannot  say  more,  but  really  I  cannot.  And  now  your 
eyes  no  longer  betray  that  you  have  been  crying.  If  you 
do  not  hurry  back,  your  mother  will  be  frightened  about 
you." 

"  And  will  you  not  come  with  me  ?  " 

"  No,  not  now.  I  promised  mother  to  find  some 
maidenhair  for  her  to  plant,  and  since  1  am  here,  I  may 
just  as  well  commence  my  search.  1  shall  be  with  you 
in  less  than  half  an  hour." 

Ilelga  stooped  down  over  the  young  girl,  kissed  her 
and  began  to  climb  up  through  the  ravine.  She  had  not 
gone  far  when  she  heard  a  voice,  which  she  instantly 
recognized  as  the  pastor's,  talking  with  loud  and  indig- 


IN   THE   RAVINE. 


A  MEMORABLE  MEETING.  141 

nant  emphasis  somewhere  under  the  ledge  upon  which 
she  was  standing.  The  stones  were  constantly  loosening 
and  rolling  down  from  under  her  tread,  and  she  feared 
that  she  had  no  choice  but  to  remain  until  the  speaker 
was  no  longer  within  reach  of  her  involuntary  missiles. 

"  I  have  watched  you  closely  and  with  sincere  interest 
ever  since  your  first  arrival,"  said  the  pastor,  evidently 
addressing  some  invisible  listener,  "  and  I  have  seen  with 
deep  regret  how  you  have,  day  by  day,  driven  God  out  of 
your  heart  and  allowed  Mammon  to  take  up  his  abode 
there  in  His  stead.  It  is  really  a  pity  to  see  a  young  man 
with  your  undeniable  talent  going  to  the  devil  in  that 
way." 

"  Mr.  Falconberg,"  answered  another  voice,  whose  re 
fined  enunciation  and  dignified  self-restraint  immediately 
revealed  the  orator  of  the  day,  "  I  thank  you  for  your  in 
terest  in  my  welfare,  which  I  confess  rather  takes  me  by 
surprise,  but  I  can  hardly  admit  your  right  to  judge  me 
as  severely  as  you  do.  A  judgment  of  my  character,  in 
order  to  be  correct,  requires  certain  premises  which  you 
do  not  possess,  and  which  I  do  not  feel  inclined  to  furnish 
you." 

"Now  really,  young  man,"  broke  in  Mr.  Falconberg 
with  increasing  excitement,  "  I  am  afraid  you  have  quite 
forgotten  the  office  I  hold  as  the  pastor  of  my  flock  and  a 
rightfully  appointed  shepherd  of  souls.  How  can  I  watch 
with  complacence  the  direful  work  you  are  accomplishing 
in  this  community,  where,  before  your  arrival,  peace,  har 
mony  and  mutual  good-will  prevailed  ?  Through  your 
detestable  paper  you  preach  schism  and  rebellion  against 
all  divinely  appointed  authority,  teach  these  poor  ignorant 
farmers,  who  have  hitherto  trusted  in  the  guidance  of  their 
spiritual  superiors,  to  judge  for  themselves  about  politics 


FALCONBERG. 

and  other  things,  about  which  they  cannot  possibly  have 
even  the  most  rudimentary  notions,  and  what  is  worst  of 
all,  you  steadily  labor  to  break  down  the  wall  which  has 
hitherto  separated  them  from  that  idolatrous,  sectarian 
Babel  in  which  it  is  their  and  your  misfortune  to  live." 

"  I  regret  to  say,  Mr.  Pastor,"  answered  the  young  man, 
calmly,  "  that  our  opinions  on  these  subjects  are  so  radi 
cally  different  that  discussion  would  only  widen  the  gulf 
between  us,  instead  of  bringing  us  nearer  together." 

"Ah,  my  dear  sir,"  cried  Mr.  Falconberg,  excitedly, 
"  that  is  a  mere  pretext  for  evading  my  arguments.  Your 
own-  conscience — if  you  are  still  possessed  of  such  a  thing 
— must  have  told  you  that  you  are  guilty  of  the  charges  I 
have  preferred  against  you.  Have  you  not  this  very  day 
stood  up  and  flaunted  your  immature  opinions  in  our 
faces?  What  do  you,  a  mere  stripling  in  years,  who  have 
yet  hardly  had  the  first  glimpse  of  the  life  here,  know 
about  Norse  and  American  civilization  ?  And  yet  you 
presume  to  teach  your  elders,  who  have  spent  half  a  li  fe- 
time  here,  and  discourse  to  them  about  their  duties  to  their 
new  and  their  old  fatherland,  and  God  knows  what 
not ! " 

"  Ah,  that  is  where  the  shoe  pinches,"  thought  Helga, 
whose  growing  interest  in  the  discussion  made  her  quite 
forget  that  she  was  involuntarily  playing  the  eavesdropper. 
The  strain  of  ill-natured  abuse  which  the  pastor  had 
adopted  had  immediately  enlisted  her  sympathy  on  his 
opponent's  side,  and  her  womanly  sense  of  justice  and  fair 
play  made  her  eager  to  lift  her  voice  in  Einar's  defense. 
At  the  same  time  Einar's  well-bred  coolness  tried  her 
sorely  and  vaguely  impressed  her  as  a  lack  of  confidence 
in  his  own  cause.  Ignorant,  as  she  was,  of  his  real  rela 
tion  to  the  pastor,  she  could  hardly  appreciate  the  compli- 


A  MEMORABLE  MEETING.  143 

cations  of  motives  which  restrained  the  native  vehemence 
of  his  speech.  It  was,  however,  a  genuine  relief  to  her, 
when  in  his  next  answer  she  detected  a  rising  ardor  and  a 
clearer  tinge  of  self-assertion. 

"  Mr.  Falconberg,"  he  said,  with  a  touch  of  defiance  in 
his  voice,  "  what  I  have  said  to-day,  and  what  I  shall  con 
tinue  to  say,  as  long  as  there  is  a  single  man  left  to  listen 
to  me,  is  no  hasty  whim,  but  my  sincere  and  well-matured 
conviction.  And  I  can  see  no  reason  why  a  young  man, 
especially  if  he  is  publicly  requested  to  speak,  should  not 
have  the  same  right  to  express  his  conviction  as  one  who 
has  grown  gray  in  the  office  of  preaching.  You  and  I,  Mr. 
Falconberg,  belong  to  two  different  generations,  and  I  ven 
ture  to  assert  that  the  future  is  in  closer  sympathy  with  my 
opinions  than  with  yours.  In  private  you  may  think  me 
a  conceited  stripling  or  even  an  impostor,  if  you  choose, 
bat  I  do  not  admit  your  right  to  censure  me  to  my  face. 
I  entertain  due  respect  for  your  years  and  for  your  office, 
but  I  have  never  enlisted  myself  among  your  parishioners, 
and  even  if  I  had,  I  should  say  that  you  were  overreaching 
your  authority,  if  you  undertook  to  abuse  me,  as  you  have 
done  to-day,  for  things  which  do  not  come  within  the 
range  of  church  discipline." 

The  pastor  turned  ashy  pale ;  he  sent  his  undaunted 
opponent  a  furious  look,  and  clenched  the  golden  head  of 
his  cane.  lie  had  felt  so  safe  in  the  feeling  of  his  strength 
and  authority,  and  had  been  confident  of  an  easy  victory. 
The  smooth  manners  and  apparent  modesty  of  this  man 
had  deceived  him  as  to  his  real  character,  and  now  the 
fearlessness  of  his  counter-attack  stunned  Mr.  Falconberg 
and  for  the  moment  deprived  him  of  his  ample  rhetorical 
resources. 

"  Young  man,"  he  whispered,  in  a  tone  which  sounded 


144  FALCONBERG. 

like  an  angry  snarl,  "you  and  I  have  not  yet  done  with 
each  other.  And  beware,  when  we  meet  again." 

Helga  leaned  out  over  the  edge  of  the  rock.  She  saw 
the  pastor's  bulky  form  retreating  among  the  trees  ;  she 
could  hardly  suppress  a  cry  of  exultation.  She  knew  that 
her  joy  in  his  humiliation  was  rather  ungenerous,  but  for 
all  that  she  could  not  but  rejoice.  He  had  found  his 
match  at  last,  and  where  he  least  expected  it.  She  looked 
down  and  saw  Einar  sitting  upon  a  stone,  resting  his  head 
wearily  upon  his  hands.  How  blind  she  had  been  !  how 
shallow  and  faulty  her  judgment  of  him!  She  had  mis 
taken  his  well-bred  self-restraint  for  weakness,  and  had 
not  seen  the  fine  manly  fiber  in  him  which  hid  itself  be 
neath  a  modest,  unassuming  exterior.  He,  too,  had  a 
noble  life-work,  a  grand  idea  for  which  he  struggled  and 
suffered  in  silence.  As  she  saw  him  sitting  there,  lonely 
and  dejected,  her  heart  went  forward  to  him  with  a  sudden 
tenderness — a  mere  impetuous  wish  to  do  him  justice,  to 
right  the  wrong  she  had  done  him.  Generous  and  impul 
sive  as  she  was,  she  yielded  with  a  headlong  eagerness  to 
her  first  inspiration.  One  large  and  ardent  thought  with 
her  habitually  crushed  all  those  smaller  considerations, 
which  with  most  of  us  kill  our  generous  promptings  before 
they  have  wrought  themselves  into  action.  The  possibil 
ity  of  misinterpretation  hardly  occurred  to  her.  She  has 
tened  onward  over  slippery  stones  and  through  jungled 
underbrush  and  stood  at  his  side,  before  he  was  yet  aware 
of  her  presence.  She  laid  her  hand  gently  upon  his 
shoulder  and  whispered  his  name.  He  looked  up  with  a 
startled,  incredulous  glance,  then  sprang  to  his  feet  and 
grasped  the  hand  she  had  extended  to  him. 

"  Miss  Kaven  !  "  cried  he,  with  a  vain  effort  to  adjust 
his  features  into  their  usual  expression  of  mere  polite 


A  MEMORABLE  MEETING.  145 

interest.  "  Have  you  gone  astray,  or  am  I  dream- 
ing?"  _ 

"  Neither,"  she  said,  smiling  and  making  no  attempt  to 
withdraw  her  hand.  "  I  only  came  to  thank  you  for  the 
beautiful  speech  you  have  given  us  to-day.  You  have 
stirred  all  the  latent  Americanism  in  me,  and  still  made 
me  feel  more  ISTorse  and  patriotic  than  I  ever  felt  in  my 
life  before.  Never  did  my  duties  appear  so  grand  and  so 
clearly  defined  as  they  do  now.  And  you  know  I  like 
even  hardships  better  if  they  only  seem  large.  It  is  only 
petty  and  insignificant  troubles  with  which  I  have  no 
patience." 

"  Sit  down,"  he  said,  releasing  her  hand  and  spreading 
his  light  overcoat  upon  the  stone  where  he  had  been  sitting. 
"  You  do  not  know  what  a  good  deed  you  have  done.  I 
never  needed  praise  more  than  I  do  at  this  moment. 
And  the  thought  that  you  have  come  here  to  tell  me  that 
you  have  drawn  inspiration  from  my  words  is  sweeter  to 
me  than  I  dare  tell  you." 

"  And  if  I  did  not  really  come  for  that  purpose,"  asked 
Helga,  whose  candor  could  not  suffer  even  an  implied  de 
viation  from  the  truth,  "  would  my  praise  then  be  less 
welcome  to  you  ?  " 

He  looked  at  her  doubtfully  as  if  he  did  not  quite  know 
what  to  answer. 

"  Then  I  must  tell  you  all,"  she  went  on,  returning  his 
look  with  an  almost  boyish  frankness.  "  I  was  gathering 
ferns  up  in  the  ravine  right  above  your  head,  and  the 
stones  were  rolling  down  under  my  feet.  Then  I  heard 
the  pastor's  voice  right  under  the  ledge  of  the  rock  upon 
which  I  was  standing,  and  without  meaning  to  hear  what 
he  and  you  were  saying,  I  could  not  really  help  it,  for  you 
were  both  talking  quite  loud.  The  expedient  of  putting 
7 


146  FALCONBERO. 

my  fingers  into  my  ears  did  not  occur  to  me  until  it  was 
too  late.  I  owe  you  an  apology,  and  I  offer  it  the  more 
readily,  because  I  can  read  in  your  face  that  you  will  for 
give  me.  Am  I  not  right  ?  Will  you  not  try  to  forget 
that  I  played  the  eavesdropper  ?  " 

And  in  her  solicitude  for  his  good-will  she  laid  her 
hand  on  his  arm  and  leaned  over  toward  him,  while  her 
warm,  appealing  smile  seemed  suddenly  to  make  the 
spring  day  more  luminous  around  him. 

"Forgive  !  forget!"  cried  he,  dimly  apprehending  that 
this  strange  new  happiness  which  pervaded  him  might 
carry  his  eager  tongue  beyond  his  control.  "  "What  have 
I  to  forgive  or  forget  ?  I  am  in  the  maddest  mood  for 
saying  wild  things  to-day,  Miss  Ilelga.  And  you  must 
not  mind  what  1  may  be  saying.  Only  give  me  the  com 
fort  of  pouring  out  my  grievances  in  your  ear.  I  am  ex 
travagantly  happy.  Never  mind  the  paradox.  And  still 
I  fear  at  times  that  I  shall  go  mad,  because  it  seems  as 
if  this  silently  struggling  intensity  within  me  must  in  the 
end  explode  my  brain.  Do  not  look  so  startled,  please. 
I  warned  you  that  I  was  going  to  talk  nonsense.  It  is  so 
very  rarely  you  give  me  the  privilege  to  be  with  you,  that 
I  could  go  on  talking  forever,  heedless  of  what  1  said,  if 
I  knew  that  my  words  had  the  power  to  keep  you  here  at 
my  side." 

"  That  is  another  of  your  polite  paradoxes,  Mr.  Finn- 
son,"  answered  she,  gayly,  "  and  I  take  it  for  what  it  is 
worth.  And  even  if  I  should  accept  your  offer  and  re 
main  here  with  you,  as  long  as  you  could  entertain  me,  I 
am  afraid  I  should  be  doing  you  a  very  poor  service.  I 
dare  not  monopolize  you,  you  know,  on  a  day  like  this, 
when  you  are  the  great  lion,  and  everybody  is  seeking  the 
honor  of  your  acquaintance.  Therefore,  if  you  will  allow 


A  MEMORABLE  MEETING.  147 

me  to  advise  yon,  we  will  both  return  to  the  tent  and  try 
to  practice  the  magnificent  theory  of  citizenship  which 
you  have  to-day  been  expounding  to  us." 

"  You  are  right,"  he  murmured.  "  You  are  always 
right.  Only  not  about  the  monopolizing." 

He  arose,  took  the  few  feathery  ferns  she  was  holding 
in  her  lap  and  helped  her  down  the  steep  declivity.  As 
they  reached  the  bottom  of  the  ravine,  where  there  was  a 
path  along  the  banks  of  the  stream,  Ilelga  discovered 
some  tall,  gracefully  waving  plumes  of  maidenhair  on  the 
other  side,  and  gave  vent  to  a  long  exclamation  of  admi 
ration  and  playful  despair.  In  an  instant  Einar  was  in 
the  middle  of  the  stream,  where  the  strong  current  made 
it  seem  impossible  for  him  to  keep  his  footing.  The 
water  swept  in  small,  gurgling  eddies  around  his  knees, 
and  for  a  moment  he  tottered.  Then,  grasping  hold  of 
the  branch  of  a  tree  which  drooped  at  a  very  acute  angle 
out  over  the  clear  shallows,  he  swung  himself  dexterously 
from  stone  to  stone,  and  in  three  or  four  leaps  landed  on 
the  further  side.  The  ferns  were  careful'ly  rooted  up, 
and  'before  Ilelga  had  time  to  frame  a  protest,  lie  had  re- 
crossed  the  stream,  and  added  them  to  the  small  collection 
already  in  hand. 

"  But,  Mr.  Finnson,"  she  exclaimed,  in  a  voice  of  alarm, 
"what  made  you  do  such  a  foolish  thing  as  this?  You 
are  dripping  wet,  and  will  certainly  catch  your  death  of 
cold,  if  you  do  not  return  to  town  directly." 

"  That  is  rather  unkind  of  you,"  he  answered,  shaking 
first  one  foot  and  then  another ;  and  he  sent  her  a  gaze 
in  which  a  kind  of  dogged  perverseness  was  visibly  strug 
gling  with  a  more  impetuous  emotion  which  threatened 
to  break  out  into  flame. 

"  I  meant  no  unkindness,"  said  Helga,  seriously.     "  I 


148  FALCONBERG. 

was  only  anxious  about  the  consequences  of  your  rashness. 
You  may  be  sure,  I  shall  never  utter  a  wish  again  in  your 
presence.  I  did  not  know  that  so  polished  a  man  as  you 
could  be  guilty  of  such  romantic  eccentricities.  But  I 
am  afraid  I  shall  have  to  revise  my  judgment  of  you, 
radically  and  thoroughly.  I  see  you  utterly  refuse  to 
accommodate  yourself  to  my  former  ideas  of  you.  In 
deed,  you  are  almost  a  dangerous  character." 

She  had  meant  to  be  gently  admonitory,  but  the  ludi 
crous  side  of  the  situation  was  urging  itself  upon  her,  and 
she  broke  into  a  hearty  laugh.  She  might  persuade  her 
self  as  much  as  she  pleased  that  his  act  was  a  piece  of  un 
mitigated  folly;  it  was,  after  all,  the  kind  of  folly  which 
appealed  to  the  romantic  side  of  her  nature.  For  beneath 
her  quiet,  decorous  exterior  lurked  a  vein  of  latent  ro 
mance  which  imparted,  as  it  were,  a  warmer  flush  to  her 
very  repose.  You  felt  that  her  usual  self-restraint  was 
far  removed  from  apathetic  indifference,  that  it  was 
rather  an  armed  neutrality  of  strong  invisible  forces. 

"  You  must  really  excuse  me,  Mr.  Finnson,"  she  said 
at  last,  checking  her  laughter.  "  But  the  role  you  are 
playing  to-day  is  so  out  of  keeping  with  the  character  I 
have  ascribed  to  you, — is  so  utterly  incongruous,  that  I 
cannot  but  laugh,  although  I  am  still  doubtful  whether  I 
am  laughing  at  myself  or  at  you." 

"  The  role  I  am  playing,"  cried  Einar  with  a  vehemence 
not  unmixed  with  indignation.  "  Never  in  my  life  was  I 
more  in  earnest !  How  long  will  you  persist  in  regarding 
me  as  an  idle  trifler?  I  always  thought  that  you  were 
generous  and  just,  and  would  not  allow  yourself  to  be 
prejudiced  by  appearances,  however  much  they  may  be 
against  me.  And  if  I  have  been  mistaken,  if  you  think 
ine  unworthy  of  your  friendship,  I  pray  you,  do  not  tell 


A  MEMORABLE  MEETING.  149 

me  so.  Even  the  possibility  of  gaining  jour  good  will  is 
a  great  and  precious  boon  to  me,  while  the  certainty  that 
I  could  never  gain  it  would  stifle  the  courage  which  is 
just  kindling  within  me." 

Helga  had  suddenly  become  thoughtful ;  a  vivid  blush 
burned  upon  her  cheek,  and  her  heart  palpitated  violently. 
A  strangely  sweet  and  still  guilty  thought  was  knocking 
at  the  door  of  her  heart  and  clamoring  to  be  admitted. 
There  was  triumph  in  it  and  there  was  humiliation.  She 
had  imagined  herself  incapable  of  listening  even  to  the 
faintest  whisper  of  treachery ;  hitherto  her  proud  in 
tegrity  had  carried  off  an  easy  victory,  and  the  voice  of 
temptation  had  ever  seemed  remote — absurdly  remote 
and  unreal.  She  was  angry  with  herself,  that  she  could 
not  now  repel  a  guilty  thought  with  the  same  ease  as  in 
former  days.  Did  Einar  love  her?  The  idea  seemed 
quite  preposterous ;  for  she  had  made  up  her  mind  that 
he  loved  or  must  love  Ingrid,  who,  indeed,  would  be  the 
very  wife  for  him.  She  had  received  Ingrid's  confidence, 
and  even  encouraged  it,  and  now  she  found  herself  cher 
ishing  with  uncontrollable  throbs  of  pleasure  the  possi 
bility  that  her  lover  had  given  his  heart's  first  allegiance 
to  herself.  But  whatever  may  have  been  her  feelings,  she 
managed  outwardly  to  preserve  her  self-possession  and  to 
feign  an  unresponsive  coolness  which  immediately  checked 
her  companion's  impetuous  outburst. 

"  I  am  afraid  your  success  as  an  orator  has  disturbed 
your  mental  equilibrium,  Mr.  Finnson,"  she  said.  "  If  I 
should  allow  you  to  go  on  indulging  your  taste  for  hyper 
bole,  I  fear  you  would  soon  soar  beyond  the  reach  of  my 
understanding.  Then  you  must  remember,  I  have  not  had 
my  dinner  yet,  and  it  is  a  peculiarity  of  mine  that  hunger 
always  makes  me  obtuse  and  unsympathetic." 


150  FALCONBEEG. 

Einar  stood  silent,  but  it  was  that  agitated,  restless 
silence  which  only  finds  relief  in  physical  action  and  not 
in  speech.  He  swung  his  cane  nervously  in  his  hand,  and 
gazed  with  a  grim  intentness  at  some  object  on  the  other 
side  of  the  creek.  Ilelga,  taking  the  lead,  moved  down 
the  path,  and  he  followed  in  a  reckless  saunter.  The  still 
May  sunshine  which,  as  the  day  wore  on,  had  deepened 
in  tone,  fell  with  a  warm  profuseness  through  the  thin, 
light  foliage,  and  a  luminous,  half-transparent  roof  of 
cloud  spread  like  a  vast,  tangled  and  torn  spider's  web 
over  the  dome  of  the  heav-ens.  The  incessant  rippling 
and  gurgling  of  the  water  filled  their  ears  and  made 
speech  seem  superfluous.  As  they  approached  the  lake, 
they  heard  the  sounds  of  violins,  human  voices  and  the 
trampling  of  feet,  all  blended  together  and  softened  by 
the  distance  into  a  low,  unbroken  hum ;  only  now  and  then 
a  bit  of  melody  somehow  got  detached  from  the  blended 
confusion,  straying  off  with  a  few  airy  leaps,  and  again 
vanishing  with  unaccountable  suddenness.  Gradually 
the  noise  grew  louder,  the  vivid  colors  of  ladies'  dresses 
were  seen  shimmering  through  the  leaves,  and  laughter 
resounded  between  the  bleak  rocks.  With  two  long 
strides  Einar  was  once  more  at  Helga's  side  ;  without  a 
word  of  warning,  he  seized  her  hand,  while  she  stopped 
and  looked  at  him  with  startled  eyes. 

"  Miss  Helga,"  he  said,  with  a  low,  passionate  earnest 
ness,  "  forgive  me  my  folly.  You  were  right  when  you 
said  that  this  day's  triumph  has  been  too  much  for  me. 
And  then  the  humiliation,  too,  and  the  intoxication  of 
your  sympathy.  I  do  not  really  know  whether  I  have 
offended  you  or  not,  but  I  fear  I  have.  I  know  you  must 
have  had  cause  to  be  angry  with  me.  But  you  will  not 
be  angry  with  me.  Will  you,  Miss  Helga?  " 


A  MEMORABLE  MEETING.  151 

There  was  something  irresistibly  sweet  in  this  tender 
appeal,  and  a  feeling  which,  in  her  blindness,  she  took  for 
compassion,  began  to  stir  dimly  within  her.  She  raised 
her  eyes  to  his,  meaning  merely  to  express  that  she  was  in 
a  sisterly  and  forgiving  mood,  but  half  unconsciously  re 
sponding  to  the  fervid  intensity  of  his  gaze.  But  now 
there  was  a  rustling  in  the  bushes,  and  Ingrid  was  seen 
running  up  the  path,  all  aglow  with  heat  and  excitement. 

"  Oh,  are  you  there  at  last,  you  naughty  girl?"  she 
cried,  as  she  caught  sight  of  Helga.  "  I  was  getting  q  uite 
anxious  about  you,  fearing  that  you  might  have  tumbled 
over  some  precipice.  And  there  is  Mr.  Finnson,  too. 
Everybody  is  asking  for  him  and  wondering  what  has  be 
come  of  him." 

Helga  had  suddenly  withdrawn  her  hand  ;  her  cheeks 
were  burning,  and  her  heart  went  hammering  away  with 
quick,  audible  throbs.  She  could  think  of  nothing  to  say 
to  Ingrid  which  did  not  seem  in  some  way  false  and 
hypocritical ;  and  a  caress  which,  between  them,  was 
always  an  acceptable  substitute  for  spoken  sentiments,  ap 
peared  now  like  base  duplicity. 

"  Why,  how  very  solemn  you  are,  both  of  you  !  "  con 
tinued  Ingrid,  innocently,  as  her  first  exclamations  elicited 
no  reply.  "  Has  anything  extraordinary  happened  ?  " 

"  Yes,  Miss  Ingrid,"  answered  Einar,  in  the  tone  which 
one  is  apt  to  adopt  toward  a  sweet  but  spoiled  child, 
"  something  very  extraordinary  has  happened.  Miss  Helga 
wanted  some  beautiful  ferns  that  grew  on  the  other  side 
of  the  stream,  and  I,  in  my  folly,  wishing  to  do  her  a 
favor,  waded  across,  which  very  naturally  made  me  wet. 
And  when  I  returned,  Miss  Helga,  instead  of  thanking 
me,  gave  me  a  scolding,  and  now,  jou  see,  we  are  both 
pouting." 


152  FALGONBERG. 

This  explanation  seemed  very  plausible  to  Ingrid,  who 
threw  her  arms  about  her  friend's  waist  and  laughed  so 
heartily,  that  the  others  were  compelled  to  join. 

"  To  think  of  Mr.  Finnson  doing  anything  so  very  un 
fashionable/'  she  cried,  while  her  child-like,  unreflecting 
laughter  rang  through  the  woods.  "  The  next  time  he 
will  swim  across  the  lake  for  a  daisy  or  a  dandelion,  if 
you  happen  to  want  it." 

In  the  great  tent,  where  a  rough  plank  floor  had  been 
laid,  the  dancing  was  going  on,  with  trampling,  shouting 
and  arm-swinging,  according  to  old  Norse  fashion.  On 
the  croft  outside  the  unengaged  maidens  had  gathered  in 
a  throng,  and  large,  awkward  swains  were  hovering  about, 
trying  to  conquer  their  modest  reluctance  by  jocose  per 
suasions,  and  when  these  proved  unavailing,  by  more  for 
cible  means.  On  the  edge  of  the  gayly  draped  platform, 
which  had  but  recently  shaken  under  the  weight  of 
Einar's  eloquence,  Nils  Nyhus  was  now  sitting,  developing 
his  political  creed  to  half  a  dozen  farmers,  who  mani 
fested  their  approval  or  dissent  by  emphatic  nods  or  in 
terjections  of  doubtful  remonstrance.  The  orator  held  in 
his  hand  a  flat  pint  bottle  of  brandy,  with  which  he  judi 
ciously  re-enforced  his  arguments  whenever  he  became 
conscious  of  their  weakness. 

"  I  don't  care  much  that  Andy  Johnson  gets  tight," 
Einar  heard  him  saying ;  "  the  best  man  will  get  tight 
now  and  then,  when  he  is  in  good  company.  But  his  gab 
sir — his  gab,  that  is  what  I  can't  just  swallow.  You  just 
uncork  him,  and  he  will  rattle  away  for  an  hour  or  more, 
as  long  as  there  is  anything  left  in  him,  like  a  bag  of  peas 
as  has  got  a  hole  in  the  bottom.  Now,  the  king  of  Nor 
way  may  be  bad  enough,  and  I  don't  say  as  he  aint,  but  I 
don't  think  he  ever  lied.  He  saith  to  one,  '  Come,'  and 


A  MEMORABLE  MEETING.  153 

he  cometh,  and  to  another,  '  Go,'  and  he  goeth ;  but  he 
don't  gab  like  a  rickety  old  woman  as  haint  got  anything 
better  to  do." 

The  bottle  was  here  passed  from  month  to  mouth,  and 
was  returned  to  the  speaker,  who  continued  to  recite  his 
objections  to  the  President. 

On  a  grassy  hillock,  near  the  entrance  to  the  tent,  Miss 
Kamsdale  and  Doctor  Yan  Flint  were  engaged  in  an  ani 
mated  discussion.  They  were  old  friends,  and,  for  this 
very  reason,  never  missed  the  opportunity  to  have  what 
they  called  a  little  "  tilt "  with  one  another. 

"  You  and  Miss  Raven  are  as  intimate  as  ever,  1  sup 
pose,"  the  doctor  was  saying,  as  he  removed  his  horn 
spectacles  from  his  nose  and  rubbed  them  with  his  silk 
handkerchief. 

Van  Flint's  spectacles  seemed  to  be  such  an  essential 
part  of  his  face  that  you  half  imagined  him  to  have  been 
born  with  them.  To  surprise  him  without  his  glasses 
would  have  been  as  embarrassing  as  to  come  upon  him  in 
advertently  in  an  unbecoming  dishabille.  His  eyes  then 
blinked  incessantly,  appeared  to  have  grown  smaller,  and 
to  have  lost  something  of  their  usual  genial  luster. 

"  Well,  yes ;  do  you  think  that  is  so  strange  ? "  Miss 
Ramsdale  replied,  putting  herself  immediately  in  an  atti 
tude  of  defense.  "  You  probably  fail  to  see  what  can  at 
tract  her  to  so  frivolous  a  creature  as  myself." 

"  Yes,  it  does  seem  rather  singular,"  said  the  doctor, 
with  a  mischievous  twinkle  in  his  eyes. 

"  I  shall  have  my  revenge  on  you,  Doctor,  sometime 
when  you  lest  expect  it,"  ejaculated  Miss  Ida,  with  her 
nervous  little  laugh,  and  shaking  her  tiny  parasol  threat 
eningly  in  the  doctor's  face. 

"  But  you  certainly  yourself  provoked   the  attack.     I 


154  FALCONBEHO. 

was  in  a  most  peaceful  frame  of  mind,  and  had  no  incli 
nation  to  break  a  lance  with  you." 

"  It  appears  much  more  unaccountable  to  me,  that 
Helga  can  have  such  an  exalted  notion  of  a  man  who 
cherishes  so  mean  an  opinion  of  her  sex  as  you  do,  Doc 
tor." 

"  I  am  quite  ready  to  agree  with  you."  And  that  radi 
ant,  winning  smile,  which  seemed  somehow  an  abstract 
of  the  doctor's  whole  personality,  broke  through  his 
bushy  mustache  and  spread  slowly  over  his  countenance. 
"  But  for  all  that,"  he  went  on,  "  I  am  agreeably  surprised 
to  hear  that  anybody,  and  especially  Miss  Raven,  has  an 
exalted  idea  of  my  accomplishments." 

"  And  why  i  especially  Miss  Raven  '  ?  Would  it  sur 
prise  you  less  if  I  were  to  tell  you  that  I  have  the  most 
unbounded  admiration  for  you  ?  " 

"  Yes.  It  would  only  confirm  my  previous  opinion  of 
your  whimsicality,  and  add  another  to  the  many  contra 
dictions  of  your  character." 

"  Now,  that  I  call  base  treachery,"  cried  the  girl,  shak 
ing  her  piquant  head  and  aiming  a  wild-flower,  which  she 
had  been  twirling  in  her  hand,  at  the  doctor's  face. 
"  Here  I  have  for  years  been  nursing  a  serpent  in  my 
bosom.  I  have  believed  you  my  friend  and  unsuspiciously 
revealed  to  you  my  peculiarities,  and  you  have  only  been 
studying  me, — only  valued  me  as  a  means  of  confirming 
or  testing  the  validity  of  your  detestable  theories  of  female 
imperfection." 

"  Even  so,  my  dear.  And  since  you  have  learned  that 
it  is  not  safe  to  measure  strength  with  me  in  controversy, 
I  propose  that,  temporarily  at  least,  we  suspend  hostil 
ities.  Here  is  my  hand." 

Ida,  with  playful  reluctance,  put  her  small,  daintily  be- 


A  MEMORABLE  MEETING.  155 

gloved  hand  into  the  doctor's  broad  palm,  laughed  and 
rose  to  go. 

"  I  will  forgive  you  this  time,"  she  said.  "  There,  I  see 
Helga  and  Mr.  Finnson  coming.  Let  us  go  to  meet  them." 

"  Tell  me,  Miss  Ida,"  said  Yan  Flint,  in  a  confidential 
tone,  as  he  walked  on  at  her  side,  "  can  you  imagine  why 
Miss  Raven  has  taken  such  a  dislike  to  Finnson  ?  She 
always  scouts  his  opinions  as  utterly  absurd,  and  refuses 
to  show  the  amiable  side  of  her  nature  in  his  presence. 
Finnson  is  certainly  a  very  handsome  and  gentlemanly 
fellow, -and  I,  for  my  part,  cannot  understand  why  any 
body  should  dislike  him." 

"  There,  at  last  I  have  an  advantage  over  you,"  an 
swered  Ida,  smiling.  "After  all,  I  understand  women 
better  than  you  do.  Helga,  you  know,  has  the  idea  that 
a  man  should  be  something  grand  and  heroic,  and  I  am 
afraid  she  is  often  apt  to  take  mere  oddity  for  heroism. 
Now.  Mr.  Finnson  is  too  smooth  and  polished  and  gentle 
manly  for  a  hero,  and  that  is  what  makes  her  so  impatient 
with  him.  She  was  probably  at  the  outset,  judging  from 
his  magnificent  performance  on  the  organ,  determined  to 
believe  him  great,  and  has  ever  since  been  looking  in  vain 
for  the  heroic  trait  in  him." 

"  I  gave  her  credit  for  greater  keenness  of  perception 
than  she  evidently  possesses,"  said  the  doctor,  medita 
tively.  "  However,  everybody  can't  be  a  hero,  and  he 
certainly  is  more  of  one  than  either  she  or  others  are 
ready  to  suspect." 

The  subjects  of  their  conversation  were  now  within 
hearing,  and  Ida  had  to  check  her  tongue  and  refrain 
from  further  comment. 

"  My  dear  girl,"  she  cried,  as  Helga  advanced  toward 
her,  tall,  stately,  and  with  a  mild  seriousness  in  her  face, 


156  FALCONBKRG. 

"  I  have  saved  half  the  contents  of  rny  lunch-basket  for 
you,  and  as  my  appetite,  thanks  to  the  doctor's  lecture, 
has  had  time  to  revive  since  dinner,  I  shall  be  happy  to 
bear  you  company." 

The  discomfort  of  wet  stockings  and  trowsers  rather 
chilled  Einar's  ardor  for  the  rest  of  the  day,  and  made 
him  eager  to  return  home  by  the  first  steamer,  which 
started  for  the  town  about  seven  o'clock  in  the  evening. 
Helga  and  Ingrid  were  both  tired,  and  Van  Flint,  whose 
note-book  had  received  many  valuable  contributions,  had 
now  quite  satisfied  his  literary  curiosity  ;  he  had  observed 
how  Norsemen  conducted  themselves  in  a  crowd  and  when 
under  the  influence  of  patriotic  excitement,  which  en 
abled  him  to  settle  several  important  points  regarding  the 
ancient  Althing*  and  to  make  the  picture  of  such  a 
gathering  vividly  present  to  his  imagination.  Miss  Hams- 
dale  and  JVIrs.  Norderud  also  boarded  the  same  boat, 
which  arrived  in  Hardanger  just  as  the  moon  rose,  large 
and  glowing,  over  the  eastern  hill-tops. 

In  the  tent  the  dance  continued  until  twelve.  Then 
the  shrill  steam  whistles  shrieked.  The  young  men  and 
maidens  embarked,  and  as  they  sailed  out  upon  the  water 
a  fine  Norse  tenor  sang  the  beautiful  national  anthem, 
"  Yes,  we  love  this  land  of  ours.15  It  rose  clear  and 
solemn  through  the  still  night. 

*  The  legislative  assembly  of  the  ancient  Icelanders. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

TAR     AND    FEATHEB8. 

THE  editorial  brilliancy  and  the  financial  success  of 
"  The  Citizen "  had  for  months  past  been  the  leading 
themes  of  conversation  in  Ilardanger.  The  stock  had 
risen  rapidly  and  was  now  worth  nearly  three  times  its 
original  value.  The  handsome  young  editor,  whose  pol 
ished  exterior  and  undeniable  cleverness  had  at  first  been 
commented  upon  with  a  certain  knowing  suspicion,  rose 
with  every  day  higher  in  popular  favor,  especially  since 
his  influence  had  manifested  itself  so  strikingly  in  the 
late  county  and  state  elections.  Be  it  in  parenthesis  re 
marked  that  virtue,  according  to  the  Ilardanger  code, 
must  needs  be  clumsily  arrayed,  slow  of  speech  and  de 
void  of  social  graces ;  elegance  and  agility  of  mind  and 
body,  especially  in  a  person  whose  antecedents  were 
mythical,  were  a  priori  a  suspicious  circumstance.  It 
was  not  until  success  had  stamped  them  with  approval 
that  they  were  recognized  as  adding  to  the  luster  of  their 
possessor. 

The  spirit  of  competition  which  sociologists  assert  to  be 
the  grand  motor  in  our  Western  civilization  was  mightily 
stirred  in  Hardanger  by  the  unexampled  prosperity  of 
Norderud's  paper.  Immediately  after  the  spring  elec 
tions  no  less  than  three  new  journals  were  started,  two  of 
which  died  an  untimely  death,  while  the  third  eked  out  a 


158  FALCONBERG. 

sort  of  negative  existence  by  contradicting  the  statements 
of  "The  Citizen"  and  flinging  abuse  at  its  editor  and 
candidates.  This  ill-natured  survivor,  which  had  been 
christened  "  The  Democratic  Banner,"  had  secured  the 
editorial  services  of  Mr.  George  Washington  Bingham, 
who,  after  having  exhausted  all  manner  of  possible  and 
impossible  agencies  and  changed  his  profession  and  poli 
tics  at  least  a  dozen  times  (though  never  without  some 
plausible  reason),  had  now  at  last  found  his  proper  sphere. 
He  dispensed  his  gall  with  a  liberal  hand,  mostly  in  the 
shape  of  puns  and  watery  witticisms,  and  strove  with  an 
ingenuity  worthy  of  a  better  cause,  to  feed  the  antago 
nism  which  had  always  existed  between  the  Norse-He- 
publican  and  the  Irish-Democratic  elements  in  the  popu 
lation. 

To  Einar,  with  his  Norse  notions  of  honor  and  civic 
duty,  this  manifest  desire  to  produce  hatred  and  discord 
seemed  almost  fiendish,  and  he  and  the  doctor  spent  many 
an  hour  in  earnest  discussion  as  to  what  course  they  should 
pursue  toward  their  importunate  persecutor.  "With  his 
keenly  sensitive  temperament  he  could  never  quite  con 
quer  the  angry  stirrings  within  him  when  he  read  the 
contemptuous  adjectives  which  were  daily  applied  to  his 
name.  It  might  have  been  easier  to  meet  them  with  dis 
dainful  silence  as  the  doctor  advised,  if  his  own  tender 
conscience  had  not  so  often  echoed  the  senseless  accusa 
tions.  The  gad-fly  to  which  the  Greek  sage  compared 
himself  might  have  been  a  mere  petty  annoyance  to  the 
noble  horse  of  state,  as  long  as  his  skin  was  whole  ;  but 
if  it  kept  ever  pestering  an  open  wound,  the  severe  meas 
ure  which  the  horse  in  the  end  adopted  was  not  without 
excuse.  Between  our  hero  and  his  antagonist  the  ad  van- 

O 

tages  were  almost  as  unequally  divided,  only  here  the  case 


TAR  AND  FEATHERS.  159 

was  reversed,  the  gad-fly  having  the  advantage  of  the 
horse.  The  one  was  bound  by  scruples  from  which  the 
other  was  conveniently  free  ;  and  the  one  who  scorned  to 
retaliate  with  the  same  weapons  with  which  he  was  at 
tacked  had,  before  the  public  which  they  both  addressed, 
only  very  slow  and  ineffective  means  of  redress.  u  The 
grand  vizier  of  our  self-constituted  sultan,"  "  That  menda- 
dacions  interloper,"  "  That  detestable  ink-slinger,"  etc., 
were  expressions  at  which  the  doctor  could  well  afford  to 
laugh,  but  which  never  quite  lost  their  sting  to  him  whom 
they  were  intended  to  vilify. 

To  complicate  the  situation  still  further,  dissensions 
broke  out  among  the  Norsemen  themselves.  Any  student 
of  the  Sagas  knows  what  a  genius  this  race  has  for  quar 
reling,  and  the  energy  displayed  on  the  present  occasion 
was  gratifying  as  a  proof  that  the  Saga  spirit  was  still  as 
active  as  ever.  After  the  May  festival  the  pastor  no 
longer  scrupled  to  invoke  the  wrath  of  God  upon  Norderud 
and  his  followers,  and  with  every  day  he  grew  fiercer  in 
his  denunciations.  It  is  so  comfortable  to  believe  that 
one's  own  enemies  are  also  the  enemies  of  the  Almighty ; 
and  the  Old  Testament,  as  Mr.  Falconberg  remarked,  fur 
nishes  an  abundance  of  evidence  as  to  how  people  of  that 
order  ought  to  be  dealt  with.  To  eject  Norderud  from 
the  church  which  he  had  himself  built  and  for  whose 
growth  he  had  labored  so  faithfully,  was  a  measure  which 
had  to  be  carefully  prepared,  and  to  this  end  the  zealous 
prelate  cautiously  sounded  the  minds  of  the  more  influen 
tial  members  of  his  congregation,  and  as  a  skillful  tacti 
cian  rallied  his  forces  about  him.  Like  every  powerful 
man,  Norderud  of  course  had  his  enviers,  and,  moreover, 
there  were  among  the  immigrants  of  later  years  many 
who  honestly  disapproved  of  his  leaning  toward  American- 


160  FALCONBERG. 

ism  and  his  apparent  disloyalty  to  the  land  of  his  birth. 
Among  all  these  the  pastor  found  willing  listeners  and 
before  long  the  hitherto  peaceful  settlement  found  itself 
divided  into  two  opposing  camps,  each  of  which  held 
itself  in  readiness  for  an  hostile  encounter.  Mr.  Falcon- 
berg's  partisans,  who  clung  to  their  Norse  monarchical 
beliefs  and  traditions,  soon  became  known  as  the  Norse- 
Norsemen,  while  the  progressive  republicans  who  gath 
ered  around  Norderud's  banner  called  themselves  Norse- 
Americans. 

Hitherto  the  whole  Norse  population  of  Hardanger  had 
(to  use  the  pastor's  phrase)  followed  the  Republican  party 
as  faithfully  as  the  tail  follows  the  horse,  but  now  the 
antagonism  toward  "  The  Citizen  "  and  its  editor  produced 
numerous  political  conversions  and  brought  an  unexpected 
increase  to  the  constituency  of  the  "  Democratic  Banner." 
Both  parties  were  equally  primitive  in  the  importance 
they  attached  to  anything  which  appeared  in  print,  and  it 
would  no  doubt  have  transcended  their  logic  if  their 
scanty  reading  had  brought  anything  to  their  notice  which 
conflicted  with  the  catechism  and  the  tenets  of  Lutheran 
orthodoxy.  It  is  therefore  only  fair  to  believe  that  the 
Norse-Norsemen  acted  in  good  faith  when  they  chuckled 
over  the  witticisms  of  "The  Banner"  and  spread  the 
vituperations  which  were  every  week  showered  upon  "  the 
self-constituted  sultan  and  his  grand  vizier." 

On  the  evening  of  the  fourth  of  July,  while  the  town 
band  was  playing  on  the  square  in  front  of  the  Norderud 
block,  an  excited  group  of  Scandinavian  youths  had  gath 
ered  on  the  corner  at  O'Leary's  saloon  and  were  discussing 
the  leading  question  of  the  day  with  considerable  vehe 
mence.  "  The  Citizen  "  for  that  week  had  contained  the 
assertion  that  "the  bondage  in  which  the  Norwegian 


TAR  AND  FEATHERS.  161 

clergy  kept  their  countrymen  not  only  retarded  their 
growth  to  spiritual  manhood,  but  also  injured  their  politi 
cal  influence  and  made  them  subjects  to  the  very  power 
they  were  so  zealously  combating."  The  dispute  was 
every  moment  growing  more  violent ;  the  more  hot 
headed  among  the  pastor's  adherents  accused  their  oppo 
nents  of  hypocrisy,  disloyalty,  etc. ;  from  words  they 
came  to  blows,  and  a  street  brawl  seemed  imminent,  when 
they  were  joined  by  Mr.  Bingham  of  "  The  Banner,"  and 
the  Norse- Americans,  seeing  that  they  were  out-numbered, 
retired  from  the  field  followed  by  the  uproarious  jeering 
and  hooting  of  the  victors.  Bingham  invited  the  remain- 
der  into  the  saloon,  gave  them  a  liberal  treat  and  exhorted 
them  not  to  waste  their  powder  by  fighting  one  another, 
but,  if  they  had  any  pluck  in  them,  "  to  go  to  head-quar 
ters."  A  plan  of  attack  was  at  last  agreed  upon  ;  a  barrel 
of  tar  and  a  few  pounds  of  feathers  were,  by  the  help  of 
the  editor,  procured  from  a  neighboring  store,  and  the 
company  divided  into  two  parties,  one  of  which  proceeded 
up  Elm  street  to  the  doctor's  dwelling,  while  the  other 
stationed  itself  at  a  corner  not  far  from  the  square. 

Einar  had  been  spending  the  afternoon  at  the  office  and 
had  retiirned  home  rather  later  than  usual.  He  had  come 
to  dread  holidays  of  late,  for  he  sometimes  feared  to  be 
alone  with  himself.  In  the  routine  of  his  daily  duties, 
while  he  was  grappling  with  visible  obstacles,  he  found  a 
safeguard  against  dangerous  thoughts.  The  motive  of 
concealment,  which  at  the  time  of  its  adoption  had 
seemed  so  easy  and  innocent,  weighed  heavily  upon  his 
sensitive  soul.  Many  a  time  a  passionate  yearning  to 
fling  the  burden  away  rose  within  him,  and  again  and 
again,  when  he  sat  alone  with  the  doctor  in  the  latter's 
study,  the  decisive  word  trembled  upon  his  lips.  But 


162  FALCONBERG. 

always  the  consequences  rose  dark  and  threatening  before 
him  and  his  courage  died  away.  Even  the  affection  of 
those  whose  friendship  was  dear  to  him  was  not  without 
its  sting  of  humiliation,  for  if  they  knew  his  real  self, 
shorn  of  its  imagined  virtues,  how  long  would  their  affec 
tion  survive  ? 

And  still,  he  might  perhaps  in  time  have  trained  him 
self  into  a  kind  of  restless  resignation,  and  in  the  varied 
conquests  of  his  career,  found  some  source  of  content 
ment,  if  a  new  and  powerful  element  had  not  entered 
into  his  life,  and  made  a  compromise  with  evil  impossible. 
The  fitful  gusts  of  enthusiasm  which  had  agitated  him  at 
the  first  sight  of  Ilelga  had  now  gathered  themselves  into 
a  strong  unceasing  current,  which  swept  his  life  onward 
with  its  passionate  impulse,  bending  every  thought,  and 
pur.pose  and  deed  to  its  sway.  Love,  if  it  be  true  and 
deep,  is  a  terrible  self-revealer.  It  shuns  half  measures. 
It  turns  its  pitiless  light  upon  the  hidden  stains  of  the 
soul,  stimulating  us  to  an  ever  keener  perception  of  our 
faults.  And  Einar  felt  more  acutely  with  every  passing 
day  that  the  endeavor  to  win  Helga's  love,  as  it  were,  un 
der  an  assumed  name  and  character,  would  only  deepen 
his  guilt,  and  add  to  the  load  which  already  oppressed 
him.  And  still,  how  his  lonely  heart  hungered  for 
the  sight  of  her,  for  a  touch  of  her  hand,  nay,  even 
for  the  unconscious  rebuke  of  those  calm,  serious  eyes. 
He  had  noticed  of  late  that  she  avoided  meeting  him  ; 
that  she  no  longer  smiled  her  kindly  welcome  upon  him 
when  he  sought  her  on  Sundays  after  the  service  ;  that  she 
was  invariably  engaged  when  he  called  to  see  her.  Had 
her  unerring  womanly  perception  revealed  to  her  what  he 
had  so  scrupulously  striven  to  conceal  ?  Alas  !  the  doubt 
was  even  harder  to  bear  than  the  hopeless  certainty.  If 


TAR  AND  FEATHERS.  163 

he  confessed  all  to  her,  would  she  not  have  pity  on  him  ? 
For  he  felt  sure  that  with  all  her  proud  integrity,  there 
was  a  deep  fund  of  womanly  pity  in  her  heart,  and  she 
would  not  coldly  condemn  him. 

It  was  with  reflections  like  these  dimly  struggling  in 
his  brain,  that  Einar  started  from  the  doctor's  cottage  on 
the  Fourth  of  July,  and  his  steps  half  imperceptibly  led 
him  in  the  direction  of  Mrs.  Haven's  residence.  It  had 
been  a  hot,  sultry  day,  as  the  Fourth  of  July  is  apt  to  be, 
although  the  sky  had,  during  the  afternoon,  been  shrouded 
with  a  somber  veil  of  cloud.  After  sunset,  a  grateful 
coolness  had  lightened  the  atmosphere,  and  now  the 
clouds  were  rolling  away  over  the  heavens  in  large  white 
masses,  showing  deep  rifts  of  blue  ether  between  their 
airy  embankments.  Here  and  there  a  little  star  twinkled 
uneasily,  but  from  sheer  modesty  vanished  if  you  gazed 
fixedly  upon  it.  The  air  teemed  with  strange  subdued 
noises — that  remote,  indefinable  hum  with  which  the 
summer  night  shrouds  itself,  in  our  temperate  zone,  as 
with  a  thin  robe  of  sound.  The  locusts  kept  up  their 
monotonous  whirr  in  the  elms  along  the  road-side,  the 
grasshoppers  responded  with  their  shrill  metallic  note 
from  their  hidden  ambushes  in  the  grass,  and  swarms  of 
mosquitoes,  attaching  themselves  to  any  chance  wanderer, 
danced  up  and  down  in  the  air,  showing  now  with  sudden 
distinctness  against  the  sky,  then  again  vanishing  into  the 
twilight.  All  was  so  hushed,  so  solemn,  so  gently  sub 
dued.  Even  the  stiff  frame-work  of  the  scattered  houses, 
which  stood  with  their  gables  to  the  street,  rose  with  a 
softened  outline  out  of  the  dusk,  and  the  little  garden- 
plots  wafted  out  breaths  of  vague,  warm  odor  from  the 
chalices  of  slumbering  flowers. 

Einar  was  sauntering  leisurely  along  the  wooden  side- 


164  FALCONBERG. 

walk,  stopping  now  and  gazing  out  upon  the  mist-flooded 
valley,  as  the  haunting  dread  of  the  possible  future  came 
upon  him,  then  again  walking  on  with  renewed  energy. 
He  was  striving  to  rout  the  fears  that  he  felt  to  be  un 
worthy  of  him,  to  steel  his  courage,  and  gather  into  a 
definite  resolve  the  strength  that  had  hitherto  wasted 
itself  in  wild  yearnings.  Yes,  yes,  he  would  confess  all 
to  Helga.  She  must  hear  him  ;  she  must  hear  him  now. 
With  impetuous  speed  he  hurried  forward,  when  a  man 
suddenly  started  up  from  the  ditch  close  to  him,  and  gave 
a  sharp  whistle  with  his  hands,  which  was  answered  with 
a  loud  yell  from  further  up  the  street.  He  stood  still  and 
listened ;  his  whole  soul  seemed  to  be  trembling  in  his 
ear.  He  heard  swift  footsteps  approaching,  and  with  a 
sudden  realization  of  the  danger,  flung  himself  about  and 
started  to  run.  The  figure  in  the  middle  of  the  street 

O 

whistled  twice,  but  did  not  pursue  him.  Another  whoop, 
louder  than  the  first,  answered  from  the  other  direction. 
He  paused  for  a  moment  for  breath,  and  stood  panting, 
pale,  and  bewildered.  The  clatter  of  feet  hummed  in  his 
ears,  coming  nearer  and  nearer.  "With  a  desperate  reso 
lution,  he  turned  once  more  and  ran  with  his  utmost 
speed,  he  hardly  knew  whither.  The  ground  surged  and 
billowed  under  his  feet,  dark  masses  moved  before  his 
eyes,  and  he  felt  only  the  air  whizzing  fiercely  about  his 
temples. 

"  There,  there !  He  is  coining  ! "  shouted  a  voice  close 
in  front. 

"Catch  him!  Hold  him  tight— the  d d  brute!" 

cried  another. 

a  Tar  him,  feather  him !  The  cursed  hypocrite !  "  was 
shouted  from  behind. 

All  around  him  fierce,  strong  hands  clutched  him.   His 


TAR  AND  FEATHERS.  165 

hat  and  coat  were  torn  off.  "With  all  the  strength  of  de 
spair  lie  struck  right  and  left,  rushing  hither  and  thither, 
tearing,  thrusting  and  leaping,  until  something  hard  flew 
against  his  head,  and  through  the  cold  numbness  that  held 
him  as  in  an  iron  embrace,  dim  voices  broke  and  hovered 
far  and  near,  whirling  him  with  an  airy,  dizzying  speed 
upward,  downward,  through  the  wide  unfathomable  space. 

Amund  and  Thorarin  Nordernd  had  been  making  an 
evening  visit  at  Mrs.  Raven's.  They  were  just  lingering 
at  the  gate  in  pleasant  converse  with  Helga,  who  was  sit 
ting  on  the  front  steps,  when  the  confused  cries  and  noises 
from  the  street  reached  them. 

"  Hush,  listen  !  "  said  Thorarin.  "  Some  one  is  in  dis 
tress.  Let  us  go  and  see  what  it  is." 

"  Yes,"  replied  Amund,  "and  there  is  hardly  any  time 
to  be  lost.  It  is  something  serious.  Good-night." 

And  they  both  started  in  hot  haste  down  the  road. 
Helga  sprang  to  the  gate,  and  peered  anxiously  in  the 
direction  where  they  had  vanished.  Her  heart  stood  still, 
and  a  vague  dread  shook  her  frame. 

The  mob  had,  in  the  meanwhile,  gathered  in  the  mid 
dle  of  the  street  where  Einar  lay,  half  naked,  bloody,  and 
insensible.  Some,  terrified  at  the  destruction  they  had 
wrought,  had  given  up  their  ultimate  purpose,  and  saun 
tered  uneasily  on  the  outskirts  of  the  crowd.  They  had 
promised  themselves  a  good  sport,  and  now  they  trem 
bled  at  the  thought  of  having  perhaps  destroyed  a  human 
life.  It  is  not  such  stuff  as  they  that  murderers  are 
made  of. 

"  The  devil !  "  muttered  one.  "  He  fought  like  a  wild 

beast.  It  is  d d  business.  I  am  glad  I  had  nothing 

to  do  with  it.  I  didn't  touch  him." 

"  You  didn't !  "  cried  another,  whom  the  fascination  of 


166  FALCONBERG. 

seeing  a  human  being  bleeding  and  mutilated  still  kept 
near  the  center.  "  I  should  like  to  know,  then,  who  did. 
I  saw  you  fling  the  brick.  I  can  swear  I  saw  it." 

Here,  in  an  instant,  the  crowd  flew  apart,  and  the  two 
brothers  sprang  forward ;  then  knelt  down  at  the  side  of 
the  victim. 

"Great  God!"  exclaimed  Amund.  "It  is  Finnson. 
Dead !  Dead  !  " 

"Hurry,  quick!"  commanded  Thorarin.  "Run  for 
the  doctor — Doctor  Remsen.  lie  is  nearest.  I  dare  not 
move  him  till  he  comes." 

Amund  rushed  away,  and  his  brother,  hardly  knowing 
what  he  could  do,  sat  gazing  mournfully  at  the  pale,  up 
turned  face.  There  was  a  large  wound  on  the  side  of  the 
head  and  the  blood  flowed  freely.  Then  at  least  he  was 
still  alive.  Thorarin  was  painfully  conscious  of  his  ina 
bility  to  help ;  he  thought  of  raising  the  bruised  head,  of 
binding  his  handkerchief  about  the  wound,  to  contrive  in 
some  way  to  stop  the  blood,  but  very  likely  he  might  be 
doing  mischief  instead  of  good.  Of  the  hooting,  jeering 
crowd  not  one  was  left ;  the  street  was  silent  and  desolate 
as  far  as  the  eye  could  reach ;  only  the  crickets  sounded 
their  patient  monotone  in  the  grass. 

At  last  rapid  footsteps  were  heard  approaching  ;  it  was 
Amund  and  the  doctor.  A  light  was  struck,  for  the  day 
was  ebbing  swiftly  away  and  the  twilight  hardly  per 
mitted  one  to  ascertain  the  extent  of  the  injury.  The 
face  was  deathly  pale,  and,  strangely  enough,  one  eye  was 
staring  with  a  glassy,  dilated  pupil,  while  the  other  was 
singularly  contracted  ;  the  doctor  placed  his  finger  on  the 
sufferer's  pulse, — it  was  feeble  and  irregular.  He  shook 
his  head  in  a  way  that  the  brothers  well  knew  how  to  in 
terpret.  The  nearest  gate,  leading  into  a  bit  of  mea- 


TAR  AND  FEATHERS.  167 

dow,  was  torn  from  its  hinges  and  the  insensible  body 
carefully  placed  upon  it.  Am  mid  and  Thorarin  lifted  it, 
one  at  each  end,  and  led  the  way  toward  Mrs.  Raven's 
dwelling.  It  was  the  nearest  house  within  reach,  except 
a  few  dismal  cottages. 

Ilelga  was  still  standing  at  the  garden  gate.  Her  vague 
apprehension  had  in  some  unaccountable  way  deepened 
into  a  very  definite  dread,  and  as  the  men  passed  by  her 
with  their  burden  she  hardly  stirred  or  spoke.  She  only 
clung  convulsively  to  the  gate-post  and  trembled  violently. 
But  when  the  door  was  opened  and  the  light  from  within 
revealed  the  hideous  work  of  violence,  she  bounded  for 
ward,  stooped  down  over  the  half-clad,  motionless  form 
outstretched  on  the  bier,  and  stood  staring  with  fierce,  in 
credulous  eyes.  Then  with  a  low  moan  she  turned  about 
and  moved  away. 

Norderud's  sons  lifted  the  body,  slowly,  tenderly  in 
their  arms  and  carried  it  in.  In  the  hall  they  were  met 
by  Mrs.  Raven. 

"God  have  mercy  on  us!  "  she  cried,  raising  her  hands 
above  her  head  with  a  gesture  of  terror.  "  Great  heavens, 
what  has  happened  ? " 

"It  is  Finnson,"  said  Thorarin;  "we  could  not  carry 
him  farther." 

The  doctor,  on  examination,  found  that  the  skull  was 
fractured,  probably  by  the  corner  of  a  brick,  but  it  was  a 
clean  wound  and  the  brain  appeared  to  be  uninjured. 
The  broken  bone  was  easily  raised  without  use  of  the  tre 
pan,  but  the  concussion  must  have  been  severe,  for  con 
sciousness  did  not  immediately  return.  The  strange  sigh 
ing  respirations  continued,  but  the  pulse-beat  became 
fuller  and  less  rapid,  and  the  eyes  began  to  show  a  slight 
sensibility  to  the  light. 


168  FALCONBERO. 

Mi's.  Haven  and  Thorarrn  in  the  meanwhile  were  en 
gaged  in  making  ready  a  room  upstairs  for  the  reception 
of  the  patient.  It  was  the  room  which  had  once  been  oc 
cupied  by  Gustav  Raven,  and  it  had  remained  empty 
since  the  day  he  had  departed  for  the  war.  The  old  lady 
went  bustling  about,  talking  half  aloud  to  herself,  but 
evidently  for  Thorarin's  benefit.  Now  she  paused  to 
brush  away  a  tear,  as  she  took  down  the  faded  dressing- 
gown  and  the  little  round,  tasseled  smoking-cap  which 
were  hanging  on  nails  against  the  wall ;  now  she  touched 
with  caressing  hands  the  white  curtains  around  the  look 
ing-glass  and  the  toilet-table  and  disposed  the  folds  prop 
erly,  or,  perhaps,  shook  the  rug  in  front  of  the  bed,  and 
gazed  in  regretful  retrospect  at  the  dainty  embroidery  of 
the  slippers. 

"  To  think  that  anybody  should  ever  sleep  in  his  bed, 
Thorarin,"  she  said  in  a  voice  of  tearful  remonstrance 
(for  as  a  gentlewoman  she  took  the  liberty  of  calling  all 
Norderud's  children  by  their  first  names).  "  Not  that  I 
would  deny  a  poor  fellow  shelter  as  long  as  I  have  a  shin 
gle  over  my  own  head.  No,  God  preserve  me  from  ever 
committing  such  a  sin.  But  here  on  this  toilet-table  I 
put  out  a  bottle  of  the  kind  of  perfumery  which  he 
always  liked  (and  he  was  always  fond  of  smelling  things, 
poor  boy !),  and  he  never  came  and  got  it,  and  so  here  it 
stands  until  this  day.  And  when  he  wrote  that  he  was  to 
come  home  in  a  month  on  a  furlough,  then  I  thanked  God 
that  my  great  calla-lily  was  swelling  as  if  it  were  going  to 
blossom  about  that  time.  And  blossom  it  did.  But  at 
last  I  had  to  cut  the  flower  and  I  made  a  fine  bouquet  of 
roses  and  hyacinths,  and  some  greens  and  the  great  calla- 
flower  in  the  middle.  And  as  I  went  to  bed  that  night  I 
thought  surely  God  would  send  him  back  to  me  that  day. 


TAR  AND  FEATHERS.  169 

For  it  was  He  who  had  made  the  calla-lily  open,  and  my 
Gustav  always  was  so  fond  of  the  smell  of  it.  The  Lord 
knows  I  weep  this  day  as  I  did  then.  Here  are  the  flow 
ers  yet  in  the  vase  on  the  table,  Thorarin.  They  are  all 
dead  now.  And  when  we  bought  our  new  table  and  bed- 
linen  I  would  not  mark  it  S.  R.  with  my  initials  as  I  had 
always  done  before,  but  I  marked  it  all  G.  R.,  for  1 
thought  that  some  day  he  would  want  to  go  to  Norway 
and  get  himself  a  good  wife,  and  then  it  would  be  well 
to  have  the  linen  marked  with  his  own  name  so  he 
wouldn't  have  to  buy  it  all  new.  Here  you  see,  Thorarin 
— and  then  to  think  that  he  should  never  come  home  to 
his  mother  again  and  never  go  to  Norway  and  never  get 
any  wife." 

Mrs.  Raven  stood  tearfully  viewing  the  pillow-case  with 
the  embroidered  initials,  but  seeing  that  her  companion 
was  too  much  absorbed  in  the  present  misfortune  to  have 
much  sympathy  to  spare  for  her,  she  laid  it  down  with  a 
sigh  of  resignation,  smoothed  it  out  carefully,  and  moved 
toward  the  door. 

"One  moment,  Mrs.  Raven,  if  you  please,"  demanded 
the  young  farmer,  walking  close  up  to  her  and  speaking 
in  a  confidential  whisper.  "  I  am  sorry  that  we  have 
brought  all  this  trouble  upon  you.  It  is  all  my  fault,  and 
I  hope  you  will  allow  me  to  bear  the  expense,  whatever 
it  may  be.  But  probably— 

"  Sir !  "  interrupted  the  old  gentlewoman  fiercely,  draw 
ing  herself  up  into  an  attitude  of  stiff  dignity.  "  I  hope 
you  are  not  aware  that  you  are  speaking  to  the  widow  of 
a  royal  Norwegian  government — — " 

"  Yes,  yes,  certainly  J  am,"  broke  in  Thorarin,  a  little 
impatiently.  "  I  assure  you  I  meant  no  harm.  But  we 
will  say  nothing  more  about  it,  at  least  not  to-night." 


170  FALCONBERG. 

"  I  am  glad  you  have  recovered  your  senses,"  rejoined 
Mrs.  Raven,  still  visibly  bristling. 

Down  in  the  lower  hall  she  met  Amund,  who  inquired 
anxiously  for  Helga. 

"  How  is  he  now,  the  poor  young  man  ? "  asked  she, 
heedless  of  his  question. 

"  Not  much  change  yet,"  answered  Amund,  sadly. 
"  We  must  move  him  upstairs  at  once." 

"  Oh  yes,  yes,  we  must  thank  God,"  murmured  she,  mov 
ing  her  hands  and  head  in  token  of  effusive  gratitude. 
"  Since  this  thing  had  to  happen,  we  should  be  grateful 
to  God  that  it  did  not  happen  to  us." 

Mrs.  Haven  had  a  notion  that  sickness  and  misfortune 
were  a  kind  of  force  or  fluid  which  was  hovering  about 
in  the  air,  and  in  the  end  had  to  come  down  on  some 
body  ;  and  with  the  generosity  peculiar  to  her  type  of 
Christians  she  prayed  devoutly  to  God  that  that  some 
body  might  be  her  neighbor  rather  than  herself. 


CHAPTER   XIII. 

NIGHT- WATCHERS. 

AN  hour  after  midnight,  while  Amund  was  watching  at 
the  bedside  where  Einar  was  lying  still  apparently  insensi 
ble,  there  came  a  light  tap  on  the  door  and  Helga  entered. 
The  white  cambric  negligee  clung  airily  to  her  form,  re 
vealing  its  graceful  undulations,  the  rich  hair  was  twisted 
into  a  loose  coil  on  the  back  of  her  head,  and  the  agita 
tion  which  burned  in  her  face  added  a  new  luster  to  her 
usually  cairn  eye.  She  advanced  noiselessly  to  the  bed, 
drew  the  curtain  aside  and  gazed  at  the  pale,  motionless 
face  which  rested  on  the  pillow. 

"  ISTo  change  ? "  she  inquired  in  a  whisper,  turning  to 
Ainnrid. 

"  No.     He  is  alive,  but  that  is  all." 

"  Go  to  the  guest-chamber  and  lie  down  for  a  couple 
of  hours.  I  will  watch  in  the  meanwhile." 

"  No,  Helga,  I  am  not  tired,"  remonstrated  Amund. 
«'  I  can  stand  it  at  least  until  morning." 

Poor  Amund  had  always  gloried  in  the  advantage  he 
had  over  his  rival  in  being  permitted  to  call  her  by  her 
baptismal  name,  and  even  now  he  was  conscious  of  a 
feeble  triumph  as  he  pronounced  it.  And  still  I  am  not 
sure  but  that  he  would  have  renounced  that  dear  privi 
lege,  if  his  self-sacrifice  could  have  called  Einar  back  to 
life  and  health. 


172  FALCONBERG. 

"  I  wish  to  remain  here,"  answered  the  girl  with  quiet 
determination.  "  I  cannot  sleep  before  I  know  whether 
he  is  to  live  or  die.  Go,  and  take  your  rest,  as  I  tell 
you." 

He  was  so  accustomed  to  obey  her  that  it  hardly  oc 
curred  to  him  to  offer  further  resistance.  So  he  arose 
and  went  toward  the  door,  but  he  could  not  master  the 
impulse  to  pause  and  catch  another  glimpse  of  her  won 
derful  face.  She  had  seated  herself  at  the  foot  of  the 
bed,  resting  her  chin  on  her  hand,  and  as  the  light  of  the 
lamp  fell  upon  her,  it  imparted  a  strange  marble  pallor 
to  her  features  ;  and  with  their  clear  massive  cut,  and  the 
large  lines  of  her  flowing  drapery  she  looked  startlingly 
like  one  of  the  divine  forms  of  antiquity  invested  with  a 
sudden  transient  life. 

Amund  heaved  a  deep  sigh. 

"  Why,  are  you  not  gone  yet  ? "  whispered  she,  motion 
ing  him  away  with  her  hand. 

"1  am  going,  I  am  going,"  murmured  he  apologeti 
cally,  as  the  door  closed  softly  behind  him. 

Helga  sat  long  gazing  absently  before  her,  and  in  the 
intense  hush  of  the  sick-chamber  the  conflicting  voices  of 
her  soul  seemed  to  grow  stronger  and  more  audible.  In 
the  presence  of  a  great  misfortune,  when  the  first  stun 
ning  shock  is  over,  the  consciousness  usually  grows  more 
painfully  clear  and  active.  Did  she  not  know,  although 
she  had  hardly  dared  confess  it  to  herself,  that  this  strong 
young  life,  which  seemed  to  be  ebbing  away  here  at  her 
side,  had  belonged  to  her — had  been  hers  by  right  of  that 
mysterious  divine  law  which  draws  young  lives  irresisti 
bly  together?  And  during  the  two  months  which  had 
passed  since  he  had  allowed  her  to  read  the  hidden  writ 
ing  of  his  heart,  how  fiercely  had  she  wrestled  with  her- 


NTGHT-WATCHEHS.  173 

self  to  convince  herself  that  it  was  all  a  delusion  !  Why 
did  God,  who  is  so  good,  send  into  a  woman's  life  these 
stern,  insoluble  problems,  these  passionate  conflicts,  which 
could  only  bring  suffering  or  brief  guilty  happiness? 
Why  had  he  awakened  that  swift  response  in  her  heart  to 
Einar's  unspoken  love,  if  it  were  merely  to  be  the  source 
of  sorrow  to  him  as  well  as  to  her  ?  Ah,  no,  she  knew 
these  were  wicked  thoughts.  She  would  try  hard  to  con 
quer  them.  Her  vision  was  clouded  ;  she  had  proudly 
depended  upon  her  own  strength.  She  would  pray  God 
to  help  her,  to  give  her  wisdom  to  see,  and  meekness  to 
bear,  even  that  which  seemed  dark  and  inexplicable. 
She  sank  down  on  her  knees  before  the  bed,  resting  her 
forehead  on  her  folded  hands. 

When  she  arose  her  sweet  face  shone  with  a  serene 
radiance  and  her  rebellion  was  quelled.  Not  that  she  re 
ceived  any  direct  response  ;  but  the  action  itself  had  lifted 
her  into  a  serene  atmosphere  of  peace  and  trust.  In 
stead  of  vexation  of  spirit  had  come  hope  and  strength  of 
resignation,  and  as  her  gaze  once  more  dwelt  on  the  pallid 
features  which  lay  in  faint  relief  against  the  white  pil 
low,  her  heart  swelled  with  deep  womanly  pity.  A  tear 
trembled  in  her  eye  and  coursed  down  over  her  cheek ; 
then  came  another  and  another.  The  heavy,  feverish 
spell  was  broken  and  the  grateful  current  gashed  forth, 
easing  her  oppressed  heart.  She  drew  the  white  bed-cur 
tain  aside  and  let  the  light  fall  upon  the  unconscious 
countenance.  It  was  a  beautiful  face,  of  noble  cast,  ex 
quisitely  sensitive,  refined,  manly  and  generous. 

"  Ah,"  she  whispered,  "  I  was  cold,  and  hard,  and  cruel 
to  you.  But  I  will  make  it  all  good  again,  if  God  will 
only  restore  you  to  life  and  to  me." 

With   an    overmastering    impulse   of    tenderness    she 


174  FALCONBERG. 

stooped  down  and  kissed  the  white,  bloodless  lips.  The 
curtains  again  resumed  their  wonted  folds,  and  she  sat 
long  thinking  with  morbid  pleasure  how,  if  he  should  never 
recover  his  health,  but  remain  feeble  and  helpless,  she 
would  nurse  him  and  cherish  him,  and  devote  her  whole 
life  to  him,  in  return  for  the  life  he  would  have  devoted 
to  her  if  it  had  been  his  to  give.  Ingrid  would  then  will 
ingly  renounce  him,  and  her  empty  life  would  be  filled 
with  a  dear  and  undoubted  duty. 

The  sources  of  affection  lay  deep  in  Helga's  nature,  and 
with  that  generous  impetuosity,  which  was  the  mainspring 
of  all  her  actions,  she  seldom  thought  of  any  other  reward 
than  the  delight  of  the  sacrifice  itself — the  eternal  joy  of 
eternal  giving. 

Her  eyes  fell  by  accident  upon  a  piece  of  paper  which 
lay  on  the  table.  It  was  a  hasty  direction  written  by  the 
physician,  a3  to  the  method  of  treatment.  She  merely 
read : 

* '  If  the  temperature  of  the  body  does  not  rise  within  an  hour  rub  the 
hands,  etc." 

She  immediately  took  the  listless  hand  which  lay  nearer 
and  began  to  rub  it  between  hers.  Presently  there  was  a 
slight  twitching  of  the  mouth,  and  as  in  her  joyful  surprise 
she  sprang  up  and  the  chair  fell  backward  with  a  crash, 
a  sudden  gleam  of  consciousness  came  into  the  blank  eyes. 
A  quick  tremor  ran  through  his  frame,  the  lips  moved 
nervously  as  if  they  wished  to  speak  and  a  hand  was 
lifted  for  an  instant  but  fell  again  helplessly  on  the  cover 
lid. 

"  I  wished — to  tell  her  all,"  she  heard  him  murmur.  "  I 
did  not  care — what — would — become  of  me." 

u  Hush !  hush,  Mr.  Finnson.     You  must  not  attempt  to 


NIGHT-  WATCHERS.  175 

speak  now,"  she  said,  in  a  soothing  whisper.  "  You  are 
too  weak.  Wait  till  you  gain  strength." 

He  evidently  understood  what  she  said.  Her  heart 
gave  a  great  bound,  but  fearing  that  the  emotion  awak 
ened  by  her  presence  might  at  this  moment  be  injurious 
to  him,  she  quietly  retired  behind  the  curtain,  then  ran 
Hghtly  across  the  floor,  and  called  Amund  to  take  her 
place. 

During  the  following  week  the  color  stole  gradually 
back  into  Einar's  cheeks,  and  life  was  beginning  to  regain 
its  hold  upon  him.  The  intracranial  inflammation  which 
the  doctor  feared,  did  not  occur,  although  slight  fever 
symptoms  caused  some  alarm  during  the  third  and  fourth 
days.  Doctor  Yan  Flint  and  Amund  watched  over  him 
in  the  night,  and  Helga  was  his  companion  during  the 
day.  It  was  touching  to  see  how  the  joy  kindled  in  his 
eyes  as  she  entered,  and  again  died  out  of  them  as  soon  as 
she  departed.  She  was  indeed  the  ideal  of  a  nurse. 
There  seemed  to  be  healing  in  her  warm,  restful  presence. 
Her  light,  noiseless  tread,  the  soft  brightness  of  her  face, 
the  touch  of  her  hand,  as  she  moved  about  performing  all 
the  gentle  offices  of  the  sick-room,  all  fell  upon  his  hun 
gry  sense  like  the  vivifying  dew  upon  the  parched  flower. 
Whether  she  was  cheerful  or  sad,  whether  there  was  peace 
in  her  mind  or  she  labored  with  agitation,  her  face  wore 
always,  while  she  was  with  him,  the  same  quiet  smile  of 
unperturbed  contentment. 

As  with  returning  health  his  pleasure  in  external  things 
revived,  he  began  to  note  the  many  quaint  objects  in  the 
room  which  breathed  memories  of  its  former  occupant. 
In  many  a  silent  reverie  he  reconstructed  his  character, 
making  his  conclusions  as  to  his  personal  habits,  and  from 
these  again  to  his  manner  and  his  appearance.  The  faint 


176  FALCONBERG. 

perfume  of  the  flask  of  jasmine  on  the  toilet-table,  and 
the  rare  brand  of  the  few  remaining  cigars  in  the  prettily 
carved  cigar-holder,  representing  a  grotesque  figure  of  a 
dwarf  carrying  a  huge  basket,  told  of  the  fastidiousness 
which  this  heir  to  a  complex  civilization  had  carried  with 
him  into  his  exile  in  the  wilderness.  The  fine-textured 
linen  cambric  handkerchief  with  the  delicately  embroid 
ered  initials  in  the  corner,  with  which  the  sister  had 
bathed  his  forehead,  could  only  have  been  handled  by 
white,  aristocratic  fingers ;  and  the  French  novels  in 
yellow  paper  covers  and  a  few  old  numbers  of  the 
"  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes  "  were  fruitful  ir>  pathetic 
suggestions.  Scattered  here  and  there  on  the  walls  were 
photographs  and  engravings,  browned  with  age  and  dust, 
and  soiled  by  the  flies.  Above  the  book-case  opposite  the 
bed,  the  new-born  Venus  rocked  languidly  on  the  foam 
of  the  sea,  and  in  the  tobacco  corner  and  around  the  look 
ing-glass  forgotten  enchantresses  of  the  Parisian  stage 
smiled  in  happy  unconsciousness  of  their  scanty  attire. 
They  made  it  perhaps  doubtful  whether  the  owner's  con 
version  had  been  as  complete  as  his  posthumous  reputa 
tion  asserted.  His  cheerful  worldly  tastes  and  spendthrift 
habits  had  evidently  clung  to  him  even  here,  where  their 
gratification  was  next  to  impossible  ;  yet  he  presented  a 
charmingly  quaint  picture  to  the  imagination,  Einar 
thought, — this  elegant  young  rake  with  his  pleasure-lov 
ing  temper,  his  white  hands  and  his  airy  manners,  among 
the  ponderous,  toiling  pioneers,  to  whom  indulgence  was 
a  sin,  and  pleasure  a  snare  of  the  devil. 

What  a  puzzling  phenomenon  he  must  have  been  to 
them  !  How  they  must  have  stared  when  he  sauntered  up 
the  church  aisle,  or  vented  his  well-bred  sarcasms  on  the 
effusions  of  the  .Reverend  Marcus  Falconberg !  But  all 


NIGHT-  WATCHERS.  1 77 

these  offences  death  had  covered  with  its  cloak  of  charity, 
and  the  name  which  was  once  an  abomination  to  pious 
ears,  was  now  crowned  every  spring  with  fresh  flowers, 
because  he  died  the  death  of  a  hero. 

"  Do  you  remember  your  brother  well  ?  "  asked  Einar 
one  morning,  as  Helga  was  propping  him  up  in  pillows 
while  he  was  sitting  up  in  bed  to  eat  his  breakfast. 

"  Oh  yes,"  she  answered,  pouring  the  tea  from  the  Japa 
nese  tea-pot.  "I  remember  him  very  well.  It  seems 
only  a  short  time  since  we  lost  him.  He  was  always  so 
bright,  and  witty,  and  pleasant ;  and  then  he  was  so  good 
to  mother." 

"  Have  you  ever  read  any  of  his  books  in  the  book-case 
over  there  ? "  continued  he,  after  a  moment.  He  hoped 
ardently,  that  she  would  say  "  no,"  but  he  strove  to  hide 
his  anxiety  under  an  outward  show  of  indifference.  It 
was  incredible  that  this  pure,  serene  Helga  could  have  any 
knowledge  of  evil — that  she  could  have  read  "  Adolphe," 
or  "Mademoiselle  Maupin,  "  or  "  Madame  Bovary." 

"  Yes,"  she  answered,  innocently,  seating  herself  on  her 
stool  at  the  bedside.  "  I  have  dipped  into  a  few  of  them, 
because  mother  thought  there  was  no  use  in  buying  new 
French  books  for  me  when  we  had  so  many  already.  But 
I  don't  think  I  understood  them  very  well,  and  the  doctor 
gave  me  some  others  which  I  liked  better.  My  brother  had 
been  in  France,  and  he  knew  a  great  deal  more  than  I  do." 

Einar  felt  re-assured,  but  he  became  oblivious  of  his  tea, 
and  sat  gazing  at  the  dear  face  with  radiant  eyes. 

"  Take  care ! "  she  exclaimed,  seizing  the  tea-cup  as  it 
was  on  the  point  of  being  upset.  "  What  are  you  smiling 
at?  Have  I  been  saying  anything  stupid  ?  " 

"  Not  at  all.     You  have  been  unknowingly  wise,  as  you 
always  are." 
8* 


178  FALCONBERO. 

"  I  hardly  know  how  to  interpret  that." 
"  You  needn't  interpret  it.  It  isn't  worth  the  trouble." 
She  rested  her  chin  on  her  hand,  and  looked  at  him  with 
a  puzzled  smile,  but  made  no  answer.  The  flowing  sleeve 
of  her  loose  morning-dress,  with  its  dainty  white  frill  along 
the  border,  fell  in  simple  folds  down  to  the  elbow,  show 
ing  a  faintly  flushed,  rounded  arm  of  perfect  modeling. 
That  a  woman  of  her  stately  form,  with  her  queenly  sim 
plicity  of  bearing  could  be  at  heart  so  child-like,  so  ador 
ably  unconscious,  seemed  well-nigh  incomprehensible.  It 
was  one  of  those  divine  enigmas  with  which  the  Creator 
is  apt  to  puzzle  poor  masculine  hearts.  And,  like  every 
enigma,  it  had  a  strange  power  of  fascination.  As  she  sat 
there  silently  before  him,  apparently  absorbed  in  thought, 
Einar  summoned  all  his  philosophy  to  his  aid,  and  tried, 
in  a  half  aesthetic  fashion,  to  analyze  the  impression  she 
made  upon  him.  That  she  was  something  vastly  above 
the  commonplace, — an  absorbing  phenomenon  beside  which 
every  other  presence  became  tame  and  insignificant, — it 
required  no  philosophy  to  detect.  There  was  a  largeness 
and  singleness  in  the  ensemble  of  her  outline,  a  grandeur 
of  form  which  we  are  apt  to  call  statuesque,  and  which 
needs  no  small  accessories  of  color  to  make  it  impressive. 
She  must  herself  have  been  instinctively  conscious  of  this, 
for  she  always  chose  simple  objects  for  her  adornment, 
and  refused,  either  from  necessity  or  from  instinct,  to  wrap 
lerself  in  the  usual  filigree  of  lace,  or  to  hang  savage 
;rinkets  of  gold  about  her  person.  The  large,  pure-cut 
cameo,  with  the  head  of  the  young  Augustus  (a  precious 
heirloom  in  her  father's  family)  which  clasped  her  dress 
in  the  throat,  carried  out  this  idea  to  perfection,  and  rested 
as  lightly  and  as  naturally  upon  her  bosom  as  a  water-lily 
on  the  surface  of  a  lake. 


NIGHT-  WATCHERS.  179 

There  was  something  so  inexpressibly  sweet  in  this  sub 
dued  monotony  of  the  sick-chamber, — the  soft  light  which 
stole  in  through  the  translucent  woof  of  the  curtains,  the 
uninterrupted  ticking  of  the  old-fashioned  clock  in  the 
corner,  the  half-expressed  tenderness  implied  in  many  a 
slight  word  and  act,  and  Helga's  warm  presence  lending 
a  strange  richness  to  all.  I  verily  believe  that  there  is  an 
Olympus  in  every  human  soul,  a  serene  region,  high  above 
the  strata  where  struggle,  and  sorrow,  and  passion  abide; 
a  "  region  unshaken  by  storms,  where  rains  never  descend, 
and  snow  doth  not  fall."  It  was  in  this  happy  Olympus 
of  their  being  where  Helga  and  Einar  met,  as  it  were,  soul 
to  soul,  without  fear  or  restraint,  only  rejoicing  like  unre 
flecting  children  in  each  other's  nearness.  The  busy  tur 
moil  and  agitation  of  life,  with  its  thousand  small  con 
cerns,  with  its  tyrannical  laws  cramping  the  free  move 
ment  of  the  soul,  reached  them  but  dimly  and  from  afar. 
To  meet  Helga's  frank  gaze,  to  hear  her  gentle  voice  and 
feel  the  touch  of  her  hand,  all  heedless  of  what  the  world 
thought  or  said — it  was  one  of  those  rare  joys  which  refuse 
to  be  imprisoned  in  words,  one  of  those  absolute  moments  to 
which  one  would  fain  say  with  Faust :  "  Stay !  thou  art  fair." 

"  Dt>  you  remember,  Miss  Helga,"  he  said  one  after 
noon,  as  his  memory  flitted  back  over  the  days  of  their 
intercourse,  "how  beautifully  you  snubbed  me  the  first 
time  I  came  to  call  upon  you  with  the  doctor?" 

He  spoke  with  happy  confidence ;  somehow  that  time 
seemed  so  very  remote,  and  he  felt  sure  that  her  opinion 
of  him  must  have  undergone  a  great  change  since  then. 

"I  remember  it  well,"  she  answered,  smiling.  "I  was 
wrong  in  blaming  you  because  you  did  not  choose  to  con 
form  to  my  own  idea  of  you.  Your  magnificent  perform 
ance  on  the  organ  was  still  vibrating  through  my  nerves, 


180  FALCONBERG. 

and  somehow  I  had  made  up  my  mind  that  you  must  be 
a  man  exalted  above  the  stru^les  and  weaknesses  of  or- 

OcD 

dinary  mortals.  Then  afterward  it  occurred  to  me  that 
you  might  interpret  my  ungracious  reception  as  vexation 
at  having  been  defeated  by  you,  and  that  of  course  irri 
tated  me  still  more.  For  I  assure  you  I  was  almost 
happy  at  being  defeated  by  you.  Even  now  I  am  grate 
ful  to  you  for  it." 

Pie  lay  thinking  for  a  moment,  but  her  candor  in  ad 
mitting  that  he  had  disappointed  her  did  not  touch  him 
unpleasantly. 

"  Tell  me,"  he  went  on,  "  how  I  impressed  you.  You 
were  not  wrong  in  rebuking  me  as  you  did.  It  is  so 
rarely  one  has  the  opportunity  of  seeing  himself  as  others 
see  him.  And,"  he  added,  smiling,  "  your  judgment  of 
me  as  I  was  then  might  help  me  to  a  useful  self-knowledge." 

"  I  am  afraid  it  is  a  difficult  thing  you  ask  of  me,"  she 
said,  coloring  a  little.  "  My  judgments  are  not  apt  to  be 
very  accurate.  1  have  seen  very  little  of  the  world,  you 
know,  and  had  really  no  right  to  make  up  my  mind  about 
you  in  such  haste." 

"  And  still  I  should  be  grateful  to  you  if  you  could 
have  sufficient  confidence  in  me  to  tell  me  even  that  which 
in  your  thought  was  not  to  my  credit." 

"  Well,  since  you  wish  it,"  she  answered,  dropping  her 
sewing  in  her  lap  and  folding  her  hands,  as  if  to  prepare 
for  a  complete  confidence.  "  But  I  shall  have  to  be  very 
candid,  and  I  am  still  doubtful  whether  in  the  end  you 
will  thank  me." 

"  Yes,  yes.  At  all  events,  after  what  you  have  said  you 
cannot  very  well  stop,  or  I  shall  expect  something  terrible." 

A  shadow  flitted  athwart  his  transparent  features  ;  he 
turned  away,  then  again  faced  her  with  a  resolute  smile. 


NIGHT-WATCHERS.  181 

"  You  know  I  have  always  had  a  liking  for  large 
things,"  she  began.  "  And,  above  all,  I  thought  that  men 
ought  to  be  free  from  all  the  pettiness  which  makes 
women  so  often  intolerable.  I  believed  that  the  life  of  a 
man — that  is,  my  type  of  a  man — must  be  a  continual 
.march  of  conquest ;  that  he  must  take  a  kind  of  fierce 
joy  in  subduing  obstinate  circumstances,  and  compel 
everything  to  conform  to  his  own  strong  purpose." 

She  was  hardly  aware  that  she  was  in  part  echoing  the 
doctor's  phrases ;  this  had  been  a  constant  theme  of  dis 
cussion  between  them,  and  he  had  unknowingly  supplied 
the  outward  form  for  her  own  fervid  but  dimly  shaped 
yearnings. 

"  Now,  that  evening,  when  we  sat  together  out  on  the 
piazza,"  she  continued,  after  a  pause,  "  you  frankly  con 
fessed  that  life  was  as  yet  an  unsolved  problem  to  you  ; 
you  said  that  men  were  no  less  controlled  by  circumstan 
ces  than  women,  and  that  made  me  impatient  with  you. 
I  thought  that  you  were  a  man  who  on  some  occasion  had 
been  guilty  of  an  unpardonable  weakness,  and  that,  in 
stead  of  blaming  yourself  for  it,  you  found  comfort  in  the 
reflection  that  the  world  was  made  all  wrong — very  much 
as  a  woman  might  have  done.  But  these  were  all  hasty 
conclusions,  and  I  know  now  that  I  was  mistaken,  for  you 
have  shown  more  strength  here  in  Hardanger " 

Einar's  gaze  had  steadily  been  gathering  intensity  as 
she  spoke  ;  he  breathed  heavily,  and  great  drops  of  per 
spiration  gathered  on  his  forehead.  Helga,  who  in  the 
earnestness  of  her  confession  had  been  too  absorbed  in 
her  own  words  to  note  the  change  in  him,  now  suddenly 
saw  the  feverish  anxiety  of  his  look.  She  sprang  up, 
leaned  over  him,  and  cried  out,  in  a  voice  of  impetuous 
self -accusation  : 


182  FALCONBERG. 

"  Oh,  what  have  I  done  ?  I  was  very  foolish  to  talk  as 
I  did.  Dear  Mr.  Finnson,  do  not  heed  my  idle  words. 
Forgive  me.  I  know  I  was  wrong.  I  have  known  it  all 
the  while." 

"  No,  no,"  he  murmured,  answering  faintly  the  pressure 
of  her  hand.  "  You  were  not  wrong.  It  is  all  true.  Ah, 
you  have  been  my  good  angel,  Helga  ! " 

All  the  pent-up  passion  that  had  been  gathering  volume 
within  him  since  the  first  moment  he  saw  her,  was  quiver 
ing  on  his  lips.  A  vague  dread  seized  her,  and  with  an 
instinctive  movement,  prompted  as  much  by  her  solicitude 
for  his  welfare  as  for  her  own,  she  put  her  hand  upon  his 
lips  and  whispered  beseechingly  : 

"  Hush  !  hush  !  You  are  too  weak  yet  to  talk  so  much. 
Now  be  good,  and  lie  quiet.  The  doctor  said  you  must  be 
very  careful.  It  was  all  my  fault.  I  forgot  that  you  were 
not  strong  yet,  only  because  it  was  so  pleasant  to  talk 
with  you." 

"  Ah,  no,"  he  whispered  painfully,  as  she  removed  her 
hand.  "  I  had  neither  courage  enough  to  act  nor  to  be 
wholly  inactive.  I  was  miserably  weak,  and  you  were 
right  to  despise  me." 

"  I  did  not  despise  you,"  she  pleaded  despairingly.  "  I 
know  well  all  that  you  have  done  here,  and  I  honor  you 
for  it — I  honor  you — arid — I  shall  always  honor  you  for 
it,"  she  ended  tremblingly. 

"  Yes,  honor  me,"  he  sighed  mournfully,  and  closed  his 
eyes. 

The  door  was  gently  opened  and  Van  Flint  entered. 

"  My  dear  boy,  you  are  not  as  well  as  you  were  yester 
day,"  said  he,  placing  his  hand  on  Einar's  brow.  "  Miss 
Helga,"  he  added,  with  a  glance  at  her  agitated  face, 
"  allow  me  to  take  your  place  for  the  rest  of  to-day." 


CHAPTER  XIV. 


JULY  had  been  tolerably  even-tempered  that  year — 
bright  and  full  of  genial  strength  at  first ;  but  as  it  drew 
toward  its  end,  from  sheer  excess  of  good  humor  some 
what  languid  and  inclined  to  doze.  I  believe  this  amiable 
languor  of  the  month, — this  warm,  golden  monotony,  made 
Einar's  gradual  recovery  of  health  less  perceptible  to  him 
self  and  his  friends,  and  made  him  linger  in  Mrs.  Raven's 
cottage  longer  than  was  strictly  necessary.  At  the  end  of 
the  third  week,  however,  he  obtained  the  physician's  per 
mission  to  return  home,  and  when  Yan  Flint,  although 
he  was,  like  all  good  Americans,  by  nature  undemonstra 
tive,  saw  him  standing  once  more  "  clothed  and  in  his 
right  mind,"  in  the  Icelandic  study,  he  felt  a  strong  im 
pulse  to  embrace  him.  His  sense  of  humor,  however, — 
or,  rather,  his  fear  of  appearing  ridiculous, — anticipated 
the  act,  and  he  contented  himself  with  shaking  his  friend's 
hands  in  a  slow  and  emphatic  fashion  ;  and  afterward,  for 
several  days  to  come,  the  eccentric  doctor  would,  with  the 
most  irrational  abruptness,  spring  up  and  slap  his  knee, 
exclaiming,  with  beaming  countenance,  "  Well,  well,  old 
boy,  I  am  glad  you  have  come  back !  " 

August  was  even  more  lavish  of  her  splendor  that  year 
than  usual.  It  dashed  the  doctor's  Arctic  Ho wer-beds  with 
glowing  patches  of  scarlet  and  crimson  and  yellow,  invest- 


184:  FALCONBERG. 

ing  the  hoary,  bloomless  Saga-isle  with  a  fervid  brilliancy, 
as  if  the  passionate  drama  of  its  history  had  found  a  fleet 
ing  expression  in  the  tender  language  of  flowers.  Along 
Skarpheddin's  war-path  his  vengeful  thoughts  had  shot  up 
in  fiercely  flaming  gladioles ;  the  sage,  cool-headed  Xjal 
found  his  judgments  considerably  biased  by  the  ardent 
beauty  of  phlox  and  carnations  ;  and  the  stern  Halgerda's 
wrath  was  completely  smothered  in  the  delicious  odors  of 
mignonettes  and  verbenas.  The  morning-glories,  which 
had  to  support  their  fragile  existence  on  steel  wires,  were 
this  year  seized  by  a  loftier  aspiration  than  usual,  and 
seemed  determined  to  shut  the  doctor  out  from  all  inter 
course  with  outside  humanity  ;  but  the  doctor  had  happily 
divined  their  purpose,  and  had  trailed  his  wires  so  as  to 
leave  a  narrow  portal  for  exit  and  entrance ;  and,  although 
it  cut  him  to  the  heart  and  was  really  opposed  to  his  prin 
ciples,  he  sometimes  at  evening,  when  the  young  blossoms 
were  curled  up  softly  in  rest  upon  the  warm  air,  pinched 
off  the  too  luxuriant  tendrils  about  the  portal  with  his  fin 
gers,  or  by  dint  of  much  coaxing  gave  a  new  bent  to  their 
aspirations. 

In  this  shady  bower  Einar  spent  the  long  August  days, 
dozing  over  the  songs  of  some  lotus-eating  bard,  watching 
the  labor  of  the  humming-birds,  as  with  cheerful  uncon 
cern  they  drank  the  life-blood  of  the  flowers,  or  pondering 
on  some  device  by  which  he  might,  without  any  violent 
jar,  reveal  the  sad  secret  of  his  past  to  the  two  beings  who, 
during  his  sojourn  here,  had  become  so  dear  to  him. 
Many  a  time,  when  the  doctor  returned  from  the  office 
(for  he  had  been  having  the  sole  management  of  "  The 
Citizen"  during  his  friend's  illness)  his  overcharged  heart 
would  cry  out  for  the  relief  of  confession ;  but  somehow 
the  doctor's  unsuspecting  confidence  seemed  a  precious 


MRS.  NORDERU&S  GARDEN.  185 

boon  to  Einar,  and  the  very  possibility  of  forfeiting  it  made 
him  shudder. 

But  Helga — had  not  she,  too,  her  secret  ?  Not  a  very 
dark  one,  you  would  say,  yet  still  one  fruitful  in  unrest 
and  misery.  With  Einar 's  departure  it  was  as  if  the  light 
had  gone  out  of  her  life — it  lay  so  pale  and  empty  before 
her  now,  so  purposeless  and  devoid  of  meaning.  As  long 
as  he  was  with  her,  and  his  presence  filled  the  winged 
hours  with  a  strange,  palpitating  restlessness  which  was 
not  joy,  but  rather  a  kind  of  delicious  pain,  she  had 
drifted  along  heedlessly,  and,  in  a  truly  womanly  fashion, 
dreaded  to  hear  the  word  which,  nevertheless,  in  the 
depth  of  her  soul,  she  yearned  to  hear.  She  had  even 
dreaded  to  admit  to  herself  that  she  loved  him,  and  had 
scrupulously  closed  her  ears  to  those  swift,  impetuous 
whispers  which  in  unguarded  moments  rise  from  the  hid 
den  chamber  of  the  heart.  But  the  whispers  grew 
louder,  and  with  wild  nutterings  of  joy  and  fear  she  be 
gan  to  cherish  the  wondrous  thought.  The  timid  apathy 
which  at  first  she  had  courted  was  irrevocably  gone ;  all 
the  forces  of  her  being  were  roused,  and  she  walked  about 
amid  her  daily  duties  in  a  kind  of  "  tumultuous  silence," 
doing  even  the  most  trivial  things  with  a  certain  dreamy, 
unseeing  ardor,  and  answering  commonplace  questions 
with  an  intensity  which  often  startled  her  interlocutor. 
To  a  nature  like  hers,  imbued  with  all  the  solemn  sim 
plicity  of  the  northern  blood,  a  great  love  was  a  direct 
gift  from  God — something  mysterious  and  sacred,  the 
presence  of  which  she  felt  with  a  mingling  of  tremulous 
joy  and  awe.  She  knew  that  the  great  moment  of  her 
life  had  come,  and  this  life  itself,  which  had  hitherto  ap 
peared  so  superfluous,  accidental  in  its  origin,  and  in  its 
destinies  dark  and  perplexing,  gained  suddenly  a  deeper 


186  FALCONBERO. 

significance,  and  found,  as  by  a  miracle,  its  place  in  the 
economy  of  the  world. 

Many  an  evening,  when  the  house  was  silent,  Helga 
paced  restlessly  up  and  down  in  her  room  with  her  hands 
clasped  outward,  startling  herself  by  abrupt  whispers, 
which  seemed  to  rise  to  her  lips  without  any  will  or  pur 
pose  of  her  own.  She  felt  tired,  and  still  intensely 
awake.  She  pressed  her  forehead  against  the  window- 
pane,  and  gazed  with  dimmed  vision  at  the  familiar  land 
scape,  which  lay  shrouded  in  the  soft  mists  of  the  night. 
Often  the  touch  of  her  own  hand  would  feel  cold  and 
strange,  like  that  of  some  other  person ;  and  singular,  un 
meaning  fancies  would  flit  through  her  brain,  as  if  whis 
pered  into  her  ear  by  some  unknown  voice.  The  thought 
of  Ingrid  would  come  to  her,  at  such  times,  with  a  warm 
sense  of  pity,  without  bitterness  or  grief.  Her  own  pas 
sion  seemed  so  absolute,  that  the  innocent,  girlish  enthu 
siasm  of  her  friend  could  have  no  rights  beside  it.  Her 
former  scruples  faded  away.  It  was  as  if  the  transforma 
tion  she  had  undergone  had  even  changed  her  ideas  of 
right  and  wrong.  But  when  the  daylight  came,  and  In- 
grid's  eager  confidences  wrought  their  way  through  her 
intense  pre-occupation,  the  old  dread  returned,  and  she 
often  shrank  back  into  a  rigid,  guilty  reserve  which  was 
very  puzzling  to  her  garrulous  little  admirer.  She  would 
fain  have  clasped  Ingrid  in  her  arms,  kissed  her  and 
caressed  her  as  in  times  of  old ;  but  that  unbending  sin 
cerity  of  hers  always  restrained  her.  And  what  wras  still 
more  unaccountable,  there  were  moments  when  Ingrid's 
guileless  prattle  jarred  cruelly  upon  her  highly  strung 
nerves — moments  when  her  former  full-flowing  sympathy 
seemed  to  have  grown  torpid,  and  refused  to  flow ;  and 
then  the  airy  chat  of  her  friend  would  seem  annoyingly 


MRS.  NORDERU&8  GARDEN.  18,7 

light  and  frivolous,  and  a  feeling  akin  to  repulsion  would 
overmaster  all  the  tender  impulses  of  her  heart.  With 
what  vehement  self-accusations  would  she  then  torture 
herself,  when  her  little  girl  was  gone  !  How  guilty  and 
fierce  and  unhappy  would  she  feel,  and  how  hopelessly 
dark  and  remote  seemed  the  way  out  of  all  these  perplex 
ing  difficulties ! 

During  the  first  month,  while  the  passionate  struggle 
was  raging  within  her,  Helga  looked  with  a  kind  of  con 
temptuous  impatience  at  the  dull,  prosy  concerns  of  the 
village,  whose  slowly-pulsing  life  persisted  in  its  old 
drowsy  routine,  as  if  on  purpose  to  mock  her  own  vain 
self  consuming  intensity.  But  when  that  month  was  at 
an  end,  she  began  once  more  to  yearn  for  some  larger 
outward  activity,  and  with  an  avidity  peculiar  to  strong 
and  impulsive  souls,  she  plunged  again  into  her  long- 
neglected  charities.  It  appeared  almost  like  a  godsend 
to  her  that  old  Magnus  Fisherman,  about  the  middle  of 
August,  had  a  severe  attack  of  pneumonia,  and  stood 
greatly  in  need  of  her  nursing  and  care. 

Saving  had  never  been  Magnus's  forte,  and  when 
ever  he  was  ailing,  as  he  usually  was,  he  accepted,  from 
the  force  of  habit,  his  neighbors',  and  especially  bor 
der  ud's,  bounty  with  a  cheery  indifference,  very  much 
as  a  matter  of  course,  or  perhaps  even  as  a  right.  If  the 
Almighty  saw  fit  to  bring  him  down  with  the  fever,  he 
reasoned  it  was  His  lookout  how  he  was  to  keep  soul  and 
body  together  while  the  affliction  lasted.  Helga  tried 
her  best  to  impress  upon  him  that  God  was  not  responsi 
ble  for  the  ailments  which  were  the  results  of  carelessness 
and  neglect  of  sanitary  rules,  but  her  arguments  on  such 
occasions  were  usually  too  deep  for  her  auditor's  unphilo- 
sophical  mind,  and  she  would  often  discover  that  she  left 


188  FALCONBERG. 

him,  after  hours  of  patient  exposition,  exactly  where  she 
had  found  him.  On  one  occasion,  he  had  even  shocked 
her  seriously  when  she  was  endeavoring  to  solve  that 
knotty  problem  of  the  origin  of  evil,  which  has  indeed 
baffled  the  ingenuity  of  more  skilled  philosophers  than 
she.  She  had  just  reached  the  point  that  God,  although 
he  was  omnipotent  and  could  prevent  evil,  still  allowed  it 
to  exist ;  when  the  old  man,  seriously  grappling  with  the 
novel  thought,  remarked : 

"Pretty  darned  tough,  that  is,  aint  it?  " 

He  was  indeed  the  most  hopeless  pupil  she  had  ever 
had.  She  often  despaired  of  imparting  a  single  religious 
idea  to  him,  for  his  droll  criticisms  were  evidently  both 
unconscious  and  sincere,  and  he  had  not  the  remotest  sus 
picion  himself  that  he  was  irreverent,  and  still  less  that 
his  remarks  were  capable  of  a  humorous  interpretation. 
He  had  for  many  years  been  in  the  habit  of  slipping  into 
church  after  the  service  had  commenced,  and  slumbering 
peacefully  in  the  pew  nearest  the  door ;  and  when  the 
pastor  had  requested  him  to  enroll  himself  as  a  member, 
he  had  looked  up  with  a  puzzled  smile,  as  if  a  dark  riddle 
had  been  propounded  to  him,  and  promised  to  think  about 
it.  The  request  had,  on  the  pastor's  part,  been  repeated 
annually,  and  always  with  the  same  result.  To  attend 
church  was,  to  Magnus's  mind,  a  respectable  thing  to  do, 
but  as  for  paying  anything  for  the  privilege,  he  would 
rather  be  excused.  In  Norway  nobody  ever  paid  for 
church-going,  and  folks  in  Norway  were  certainly  better 
Christians  than  their  countrymen  in  Hardanger,  "  by  a 
darned  sight."  It  is  needless  to  say  that  such  reasoning 
was  exceedingly  irritating  to  Mr.  Falconberg,  who,  aside 
from  the  question  of  discipline,  took  very  much  the  same 
pride  in  the  numerical  growth  of  his  church  as  a  farmer 


MRS.  NORDERTT&S  GARDEN.  189 

in  the  increase  of  his  stock,  or  a  merchant  in  the  extension 
of  his  trade.  In  Norway  it  had  been  very  different. 
There,  Evangelical  Lutheran  ism  was  an  old  and  estab 
lished  thing,  and  exalted  high  above  the  need  of  indi 
vidual  patronage.  Worldly  ambition,  there,  as  far  as  it 
entered  at  all  into  the  mind  of  the  clerical  devotee,  con 
ceived  of  the  church  as  a  kind  of  ladder,  by  which  he 
might  mount  into  eminence.  But  here,  as  Mr.  Falcon- 
berg  once  remarked  in  confidence  to  a  clerical  brother, 
you  had  to  hold  on  to  your  ladder  and  support  it,  while 
you  attempted  to  mount.  And  no  one  will  deny  that  that 
is  rather  a  difficult  feat. 

In  this  question  of  Magnus's  church-membership,  Nor- 
dernd  had  once  been  appealed  to,  as  the  man  whose  voice 
would  be  likely  to  have  the  greatest  weight  with  the  de 
linquent.  But,  from  Norderud's  secular  point  of  view, 
the  case  assumed  rather  a  ludicrous  aspect,  and  he  could 
not  be  persuaded  that  a  soul  of  Magnus's  calibre  was  of 
much  account,  one  way  or  another. 

"Let  us  rather  attend  to  the  wants  of  his  body,  Mr. 
Pastor,"  said  he,  with  that  amused  air  which  was  habitual 
with  him  whenever  he  spoke  of  Magnus,  "  and  leave  to 
God  the  care  of  his  soul.  Somehow  God  did  not  endow 
him  any  too  plentifully,  and  he  cannot  in  all  fairness  de 
mand  much  in  return.  If  the  old  man  likes  to  drop  into 
church  of  a  Sunday,  and  doze  for  an  hour  behind  the 
door,  why,  very  likely  that  is  a  sort  of  worship  to  him, 
and  may  benefit  him.  And  as  it  certainly  does  no  harm 
to  anybody,  I  don't  see  that  it  is  worth  our  while  to  make 
any  disturbance  about  it." 

Any  one  who  knows  the  structure  of  the  ecclesiastical 
mind  will  admit  that  "  this  lukewarm  indifference,  hidden 
under  the  cloak  of  charity,"  must  have  been  peculiarly 


190  FALCONBERG. 

exasperating  to  Mr.  Falconberg.  No  wonder  that  be 
swore  in  his  heart  never  to  consult  Norderud's  opinion  in 
church  questions  again  !  The  farmer,  on  the  other  hand, 
who  had  never  been  much  addicted  to  analyzing  other 
people's  feelings,  and,  like  every  healthy  nature,  judged 
the  world  fearlessly  by  his  own  standard,  departed  from 
this  interview  in  an  agreeable  glow  of  self-satisfaction. 
Had  he  not,  in  spite  of  the  pastor's  supercilious  brusque- 
ness,  met  him  with  amiability  and  in  a  spirit  of  Christian 
forbearance.  Possibly  there  was  still  a  pathway  open  to 
mutual  forgiveness. 

But  years  went  by.  and  the  hoped-for  reconciliation 
seemed  more  remote  than  ever.  In  fact,  you  might  as 
well  have  attempted  to  reconcile  the  North  and  the  South 
winds.  They  were  made  to  blow  in  opposite  directions, 
and  when  they  meet,  they  cover  the  earth  with  disaster. 
It  was  the  world-old  struggle  between  a  rising  and  a  de 
caying  civilization,  fought  within  the  narrow  arena  of 
two  human  breasts.  If  the  pastor  and  Norderud  had 
themselves  been  capable  of  taking  this  lofty  view  of 
their  animosities,  they  might,  with  philosophic  cool 
ness,  have  agreed  to  differ,  and  Ilardanger  would  have 
been  spared  that  grievous  scandal  which  I  am  soon  to 
relate. 

It  was  perhaps  not  to  be  wondered  at,  that  in  the  course 
of  time  the  pastor  came  to  look  upon  Magnus  as  a  living 
reminder  of  his  hatred  of  Norderud,  and  that  he  took  a 
spiteful  pleasure  in  administering  a  kick  to  him,  meta 
phorically  speaking,  whenever  a  chance  was  at  hand. 
Every  one,  except  the  victim  himself,  was  well  aware  for 
whom  these  frequent  snubs  and  rebukes  were  intended, 
and  Mr.  Falconberg's  popularity  suffered  much  in  conse 
quence.  In  Nils  Nyhus's  parlance,  he  Hogged  the  cart, 


MRS.  NORDERUD'S  GARDEN.  101 

hut  meant  the  mare,  and,  with  their  innate  love  of  fair 
play,  the  Norsemen  all  agreed  that  that  was  a  cowardly 
proceeding. 

When  the  month  of  September,  without  bringing  cool 
ness,  still  had  taken  the  sting  out  of  the  heat,  Helga  might 
have  been  seen  daily  ascending  and  descending  the  slope 
from  the  town  to  Magnus's  cottage  among  the  decaying 
stumps  of  what  had  once  been  a  majestic  forest.  There 
was  an  eager,  heedless  grace  in  her  movements  as  she 
walked  rapidly  onward,  usually  with  a  basket  of  food  on 
her  arm,  and  her  face  shaded  by  a  broad  sun-hat  tied 
down  with  a  ribbon  over  the  ears.  She  was  not  one  of 
those  who,  because  they  are  conscious  of  higher  aspira 
tions,  look  upon  the  smaller  duties  of  a  woman's  life  as 
frivolous  and  beneath  their  notice.  Her  instinct  in  mat 
ters  of  dress  was  unerring,  and  Ida  Ramsdale  used  to 
come  and  hold  solemn  consultations  with  her,  both  when 
a  new  silk  dress  was  to  be  "  plotted  "  and  daring  the  vari 
ous  stages  of  its  progress.  Then  they  measured  and  tried 
on,  eyed  each  other  critically,  tested  effects  of  color, 
laughed  indefinable  little  laughs  of  fluttering  joy,  and  in 
dulged  in  vivid  imaginings  of  the  future.  It  was  natu 
rally  Ida  who  took  the  more  active  part  during  these  in 
terviews  ;  but  Helga  was  at  least  sufficiently  sympathetic 
to  encourage  her  in  her  frivolities;  she  was,  happily,  still 
girlish  enough  to  be  startled  into  an  exclamation  of  de 
light  by  a  fine  combination  of  colors,  by  the  pearly  sheen 
of  satin,  or  the  picturesque  complexity  of  a  new  bonnet. 
Now,  however,  those  times  seemed  far  away,  and  I  am 
afraid  that  if  Miss  Ramsdale  had  now  appealed  to  her 
presumable  enthusiasm  for  millinery,  she  would  have 
found  an  unanswering  void. 

Magnus  had  been  growing  visibly  worse  during  the  last 


192  FALCONBERG. 

week ;  the  fever  increased,  and  the  congestions  became 
more  frequent.  Helga  had  wrought  herself  up  into  a 
state  of  nervous  uneasiness  which  she  sincerely  believed 
to  be  all  for  her  patient,  and  she  had  at  last  concluded  to 
call  upon  Mrs.  Norderud  for  assistance.  During  the  early 
days  of  the  settlement,  before  the  advent  of  doctors  and 
the  more  complex  diseases,  Mrs.  Norderud  had  earned  a 
just  fame  by  her  "  house-remedies" — that  is,  simple  de 
coctions  of  familiar  herbs,  which  were  warranted  to  cure 
fever,  dropsy,  and  other  common  ailments.  Helga  had 
herself  once  had  occasion  to  test  her  skill,  and  would 
henceforth  far  rather  have  trusted  her  life  to  her  than  to 
the  American  doctors,  whose  antecedents  no  one  knew, 
and  whose  unpolished  appearance  made  their  medical 
pretensions  appear  more  than  problematic. 

It  was  a  bright,  beautiful  afternoon  in  September  that 
Helga  started  for  the  Norderud  mansion,  having  left 
Annie  Lisbeth  in  charge  of  the  invalid.  The  moist  mead 
ows  along  the  road-side  lay  glistening  in  the  sun ;  light 
vapors  drifted  lazily  over  the  unmown  rowen,  and  the  air 
was  filled  with  a  damp,  earthy  odor  which  affected  the 
sense  gratefully.  She  walked  rapidly  along  the  grassy 
edge  of  the  road,  and  climbed  the  slope  to  the  town,  quite 
heedless  of  the  bright-eyed  wild  flowers  which  nodded 
behind  her,  as  the  hem  of  her  dress  swept  over  their 
heads.  She  crossed  the  square  and  hurried  up  Elm 
street,  being  all  the  while  haunted  by  a  vague  possibility, 
half  a  hope,  perhaps,  and  half  a  fear.  If  she  met  Einar, 
now,  what  should  she  say  to  him  ?  How  should  she  be 
have  toward  him?  It  seemed  incredible  that  he  would 
not  at  once  feel  the  great  change  which  had  taken  place 
in  her, — that  he  would  not  read  in  her  face  all  the  pas 
sionate  struggle  which  had  filled  her  life  since  he  had  left 


MRS.  NORDERU&S  GARDEN.  193 

her.  She  knew  she  had  a  tell-tale  face,  and  she  trembled 
lest  it  might  betray  her. 

As  she  passed  the  doctor's  cottage  she  could  not  master 
the  desire  to  look  up  over  the  low  hedges.  There  the 
doctor,  clad  in  a  linen  coat  of  immaculate  whiteness,  was 
squatting  among  his  flowers,  his  countenance  distorted 
with  an  earnest  grin  of  intense  pre-occupation.  He  was 
digging  with  a  stick  about  the  root  of  a  rose-tree,  and 
was  too  intent  upon  his  work  to  notice  the  fair  young  face 
that  was  gazing  at  him  over  the  close-trimmed  tops  of  the 
hawthorn.  Up  on  the  piazza,  Helga  discerned  another 
figure,  dimly  outlined  through  the  sparse-leafed  woof  of 
the  morning-glories.  Her  heart  gave  a  great  leap,  and 
she  paused  abruptly,  as  if  the  vision  had  burst  upon  her 
by  surprise.  Einar  was  sitting  in  a  large  rocking-chair  ; 
the  book  which  he  had  been  reading  lay  unheeded  in  his 
lap,  and  his  head  was  resting  wearily  in  his  palm.  There 
was  something  in  this  listless  attitude  which  spoke  directly 
to  her  heart;  a  quiver  stole  over  her,  and  her  whole  soul 
went  forward  with  a  great  yearning  toward  him.  Then 
the  consciousness  of  her  strange  position  suddenly  returned 
to  her,  and  she  was  about  to  hurry  on,  when  the  doctor's 
genial  voice  came  floating  toward  her,  as  it  were,  from  far 
away,  soaring  above  the  heads  of  the  flowers. 

"  Ah,  nobilissima  donna"  cried  the  doctor,  rising  and 
wiping  the  perspiration  from  his  brow.  "  Pardon  my 
rustic  attire.  As  you  see,  I  was  indulging  my  horticul 
tural  propensities,  and  if  you  will  do  me  the  honor  to  step 
in  through  this  gate  which  leadeth  to  my  kingdom,  I  shall 
be  happy  to  place  my  whole  flowery  domain  at  your  dis 
posal.  Now  tell  me  honestly,  did  you  ever  see  castor- 
beans  which  rivaled  these  ?  They  are  the  great  event  of 
the  season.  Mr.  Xorderud — who  is,  by  the  way,  turning 
9 


194  FALCONBERO. 

yellow  and  green  with  envy — pays  me  a  visit  every  morn 
ing  before  I  get  up,  and  has  a  quiet  little  rage  all  to  him 
self  down  here  in  the  garden.  I  happened  to  catch  him 
at  it  this  morning,  and  he  had  to  admit  that  his  castor- 
beans  were  hardly  five  feet  tall  yet.  But  come  in,  and 
you  may  judge  for  yourself."1' 

"  Thank  you,  Doctor,"  answered  the  girl,  pausing  at  the 
gate,  which  he  had  hospitably  opened  before  her ;  "  but 
I  really  cannot  stop.  Magnus  is  a  great  deal  worse,  and  I 
dare  not  leave  him  any  longer  than  is  absolutely  necessary." 

"  Vain  subterfuges,  if  it  please  your  grace,"  retorted 
he.  "  Magnus  will  feel  all  the  better  for  the  breath  of 
summer  which  will  cling  to  your  garments  after  a  stroll 
among  my  flower-beds.  Really,  I  cannot  allow  you  to 
depart,"  he  added  imploringly.  "  Now  be  a  good  girl, 
and  listen  for  once  to  the  voice  of  wisdom." 

Helga  hesitated  for  a  moment. 

"  No,  no,  Doctor,"  she  said  at  last  hurriedly,  "  not  this 
time.  You  ought  not  to  tempt  me." 

"  Well,  then,  since  you  are  so  obstinate,"  he  answered, 
reproachfully.  "  But  you  must  at  all  events  listen  to  this. 
A  most  extraordinary  thing  has  happened.  The  Arctic 
Faeroe  Isles  have  been  invaded  by  a  hostile  army  of — cater 
pillars  !  Finnson  and  I  have  had  our  hands  full  during 
the  last  week  in  protecting  the  helpless  inhabitants  against 
the  greed  and  violence  of  the  enemy.  And,  as  Finnson  is 
not  at  all  in  a  combative  mood  at  present,  I  have  had  to 
do  all  the  murdering  single-handed.  Now,  if  you  were 
the  same  Helga  I  used  to  know  in  times  of  old,  you  would 
volunteer  to  come  and  help  me." 

u  Yes,  if  I  was  the  same  young  lady  of  elegant  leisure 
that  I  was  then,"  answered  she,  with  an  attempt  at  gayety 
which  sounded  strange  to  her  own  ears,  "you  certainly 


MRS.  NORDERUVS  GARDEN.  195 

should  not  have  to  ask  me  twice.  But  now  I  must  bid 
you  good-bye.  My  patient  will  miss  me." 

"  If  you  cannot  wait  to  get  your  bouquet,  you  will  find 
it  on  the  gate-post  on  your  return,"  cried  the  doctor  after 
her. 

Einar  had  been  watching  this  little  scene  with  excited 
interest,  from  behind  his  leafy  shelter.  He  was  not  aware 
that  he  had  been  observed.  His  first  impulse  was  to 
rush  forward  and  speak  to  her.  But  there  was  Yan  Flint. 
It  would  not  do  to  meet  her  in  his  presence,  for  the  emo 
tion  which  was  palpitating  so  strongly  within  him,  made 
him  feel  certain  that  he  would  betray  himself.  Moreover, 
had  he  not  made  a  solemn  vow  to  himself  that  he  would 
not  see  her  until  he  had  gathered  courage  to  lift  the  veil 
from  his  heart,  and  show  her  all  that  dwelt  therein  ?  He 
had  risen  for  a  moment.  Now  he  fell  back  into  the  arm 
chair,  and  with  a  movement  of  despair,  pressed  his  hand 
against  his  forehead.  It  was  well  that  no  one  saw  him, 
at  least,  no  one  except  the  morning-glories  ;  but  they,  like 
the  innocent  things  that  they  were,  went  early  to  sleep, 
and  probably  they  did  not  see  him. 

The  little  interview  with  the  doctor  had  left  a  subdued, 
quivering  agitation  in  Helga's  mind.  She  hurried  on  to 
her  destination,  and  found  Mrs.  ISTorderud  in  the  kitchen 
garden  behind  the  house.  She  was  standing  half  hidden 
among  the  tall  clambering  bean-stalks,  cutting  the  long 
green  pods  with  a  pair  of  scissors,  and  dropping  them  into 
a  tin  pail  which  hung  on  her  arm. 

As  she  saw  the  young  girl  approaching,  she  put  down 
the  pail  on  the  grass,  wiped  her  right  hand  on  the  back 
of  her  apron  (a  habit  which  her  husband  had  not  been 
able  to  break  her  of),  and  quietly  advanced  to  greet  her 
visitor. 


190  FALCONBERG. 

"  A  rare  guest,  to  be  sure,"  she  said,  as  Helga  laid  her 
white  hand  in  hers.  "  We  haven't  seen  you  for  a  great 
while,  child.  What  have  you  been  doing  ?  " 

The  sweet  matronly  comeliness  of  Mrs.  Norderud's 
face,  with  its  cheerfully  uncritical  eyes,  was  ever  a  rest 
and  a  comfort  to  every  one  who  was  privileged  to  gaze 
upon  it.  As  Helga  stood  looking  into  those  calm,  benig 
nant  features,  she  felt  a  strange  rising  sensation  in  her 
throat,  and  could  with  difficulty  repress  a  sob. 

"  Oh,  I  have  been  very,  very  busy,  Mrs.  Norderud,"  she 
answered  in  a  voice  that  was  scarcely  audible.  u  Old 
Magnus  ia  very  sick,  you  know,  and  I  am  taking  care  of 
him." 

Mrs.  Norderud  was  walking  up  the  gravel  path  at  the 
girl's  side,  listening  with  a  serene,  unperturbed  counte 
nance,  in  which  sympathetic  interest  was  yet  plainly  legi 
ble.  Now  and  then  she  stooped  down  to  knock  off  a 
caterpillar  or  a  beetle  from  the  tomato  vines,  or  to  break 
off  the  decaying  leaves  of  a  too  luxuriant  cabbage.  But 
Helga  knew  too  well  her  housewifely  ways  to  take  of 
fense,  especially  as  her  attention  never  wandered,  in  spite 
of  seeming  digressions. 

O  O 

"  But,  dear  child,"  she  said  as  the  girl  had  finished  her 
account  of  Magnus's  complicated  ailments,  "it  will  never 
do  for  you  to  wear  yourself  out  in  this  way,  sitting  up 
nights  and  taking  your  meals  by  snatches,  and  wading 
down  that  street  through  the  mud,  and  sitting  with  wet 
feet  all  day  long,  as  I  know  you  are  doing.  You  know 
Nils,  my  husband,  doesn't  like  to  have  me  help  folks  with 
medicines, — not  that  he  wants  to  deprive  them  of  what 
little  help  I  can  give  them.  No  ;  God  knows  there  never 
was  a  kinder-hearted  man  living  than  Nils,  my  husband, 
is.  But  he  has  his  crooked  notions,  too,  as  who  has  not,  I 


MBS.  NORDERWS  GARDEN.  197 

should  like  to  know  ?  And  I  never  knew  a  man,  taking 
him  altogether,  better  at  bottom  and  straighter  every  way 
than  he  is,  God  bless  him.  And  now  I  have  been  mar 
ried  to  him  thirty-two  years  come  next  Michaelmas,  so  I 
am  sure  I  ought  to  know  him  by  this  time.  But,  as  I 
was  saying,  he  doesn't  like  to  have  me  give  folks  medi 
cine,  for  he  has  a  notion  that  I  am  kind  of  old-fashioned, 
and  likely  enough  he  is  right  about  it.  I  don't  know  the 
American  way  of  doing  things,  he  says,  and  surely  I  do 
not,  for  I  hold  on  to  my  old  ways,  as  I  learned  them  at 
home,  and  I  was  too  old  when  we  came  over  to  this  coun 
try  to  take  up  with  new-fangled  notions.  But  eleven 
years  ago,  when  Thorarin  was  down  so  bad  with  the  fever, 
and  we  both  sat  up  night  after  night,  hardly  expecting 
him  to  live  from  hour  to  hour,  and  no  doctor  was  to  be 
had  all  the  country  round,  then  my  remedies  were  not 
old-fashioned,  and  it  was  his  belief  at  that  time,  as  it  is 
mine,  that  they  saved  the  boy  for  us.  And  if  you  wish 
it,  child,  I  will  put  on  my  bonnet  right  away,  and  go 
down  with  you  to  see  old  Magnus ;  and  if  I  can  do  any 
thing  for  him,  I  am  sure  God  will  forgive  me  for  not  tell 
ing  Nils,  as  sure  as  Nils  would  forgive  me,  when  he  had 
scolded  me  a  little,  if  he  knew  it.  And  I  will  go  down 
and  watch  some  night  this  week  when  I  am  done  salting 
down  the  beans,  and  to-night  I  will  send  one  of  the  girls." 

"  Thank  you,  thank  you,  Mrs.  Norderud,"  exclaimed 
Helga,  heartily.  "  I  am  sure  you  can  do  a  great  deal 
more  for  him  than  that  doctor  who  talks  such  bad  gram 
mar,  and  spells  '  spoon '  with  a  '  u '  and  an  '  e.' ': 

Mrs.  Norderud  smiled  her  simple  Norse  smile,  showing 
that  in  spite  of  her  advanced  years,  she  was  not  imper 
vious  to  flattery. 

"  Sit  down  and  wait  for  me  a  moment,  while  I  go  and 


198  FALCONBERQ. 

fetch  the  beans,"  she  said,  pointing  to  a  rustic  bench 
under  a  large,  spreading  apple-tree. 

Her  gentle,  restful  presence  had  soothed  Helga's  excite 
ment,  and  pushed  the  memory  of  her  own  troubles  into 
the  background  of  her  mind.  But  as  she  was  once  more 
alone,  they  returned  to  her  with  renewed  vividness,  and 
she  felt  an  irresistible  impulse  to  weep.  The  matron 
busied  herself  for  several  minutes  among  her  vegetables, 
and  when  she  came  back,  being  struck  with  the  haggard 
expression  of  the  girl's  face,  she  inquired  anxiously : 

"You  are  feeling  ill,  child,  are  you  not?  You  cer 
tainly  need  looking  after  yourself,  as  much  as  the  old 
man  does.  Wont  you  come  in  and  let  me  make  some 
strong  coffee  for  you  ? — and  perhaps  some  elder  tea, — that 
might  do  you  good.  You  go  at  things  in  such  a  headlong 
way,  child,  and  when  you  have  got  something  into  your 
head,  you  don't  heed  the  advice  of  your  elders,  as  know 
better  than  you  do." 

She  had  seated  herself  on  the  bench,  and  taken  Helta's 

'  O 

hand  in  hers.  Her  tenderly  reproachful  tone,  even  more 
than  the  words  themselves,  which  were  scarcely  heard, 
melted  the  chilly  numbness  which  had  gathered  like  an 
icy  crust  around  the  girl's  heart.  The  tears  burst  forth. 
She  buried  her  face  in  Mrs.  Norderud's  lap,  and  tried  no 
more  to  restrain  her  convulsive  sobs. 

"  Poor  child  !  She  is  sick  and  tired,"  murmured  the 
kind-hearted  woman,  as  if  Helga's  helpless  state  made  it 
inadvisable  to  address  her  directly.  "  Some  one  ought  to 
look  after  her.  If  she  was  my  child,  I  should  never  allow 
her  to  wear  herself  all  out,  never  getting  out  of  her 
clothes,  and  getting  a  good  night's  rest, — and  going  with 
wet  feet,  and  all  for  the  sake  of  an  old  man  as  hasn't  got 
very  long  to  live,  anyway  !  " 


MRS.  NORDERU&S  GARDEN.  199 

And  she  sat  long,  stroking  the  young  girl's  hair  caress 
ingly,  and  continuing  her  soliloquy,  enumerating  all  the 
things  she  would  have  done  if  Helga  had  been  her  own 
child. 

Helga  had  never  known  the  relief  of  a  real  confidence  ; 
and,  while  her  existence  had  flowed  on,  forming  merely  a 
part  of  the  general  monotony  which  pervades  the  year, 
like  a  damp  mist,  in  our  Western  villages,  she  had  hardly 
felt  the  need  of  it.  But  since  she  had  known  the  deeper 
sorrows  and  joys  of  an  all-absorbing  passion,  her  life  had 
gathered  a  swifter  impulse,  and  with  a  conscious,  half- 
impatient  dignity,  held  itself  aloof  from  the  cold  com- 
inonplaceness  which  surrounded  her — like  a  current  of  a 
purer  liquid  which  refuses  to  mingle  with  water  at  its 
common  temperature.  But  now,  as  she  felt  Mrs.  Norde- 
rud's  caressing  touch  on  her  head,  and  heard  her  tender 
and  soothing  words,  a  sense  of  her  utter  helplessness  came 
over  her,  and  she  yearned  to  pour  out  to  her  all  her  hid 
den  hopes,  and  yearnings,  and  regrets.  But  alas !  she  was 
Ingrid's  mother — it  could  not  be. 


CHAPTER  XY. 

MAGNUS'S  POSTHUMOUS  CAREER. 

OLD  MAGNUS  was  dead  ;  and  for  several  reasons  his 
death  became  an  event  of  far  greater  significance  in  the 
annals  of  the  settlement  of  Hardanger  than  his  life  had 
ever  been.  First  it  supplied  the  town  with  a  bon-mot ; 
not  a  very  epigrammatic  one  I  admit,  but  still  rudely  ex 
pressive  as  Norse  bon-mots  are  apt  to  be.  "  '  I  will  never 
trouble  you  again,'  as  Magnus  said  to  the  Almighty,"  is 
still  a  favorite  saying  among  the  Norsemen  in  Ilardanger. 

The  origin  of  this  saying  was  as  follows,  and  I  shall  try 
to  relate  it  as  reverently  as  it  was  uttered  by  the  suppli 
cant  himself  and  told  by  Helga  to  Norderud  the  morning 
after  the  old  man's  death : 

Helga  had  long  been  endeavoring  in  vain  to  impress 
Magnus  with  a  sense  of  his  own  sinfulness  and  his  re 
sponsibility  before  God.  He  had  always  resented  such 
insinuations  as  a  reflection  upon  his  good  name  and  char 
acter  which  he  could  not  allow  to  pass  un contradicted. 
At  last,  however,  when  suffering  had  subdued  his  spirit, 
she  had  prevailed  upon  him  to  pray,  and  with  an  earnest 
ness,  strangely  out  of  keeping  with  the  seeming  flippancy 
of  his  words,  his  untutored  soul  addressed  itself  to  its 
Maker  with  this  singular  supplication : 

"  O  Lord,"  he  said,  in  a  hoarse  whisper  (for  he  had 
hardly  breath  enough  left  to  speak),  "  I  have  never  been 


MAGNU&S  POSTHUMOUS  CAREER.  201 

in  the  habit  of  troubling  you  much  with  my  affairs,  and  if 
you  will  help  me  safely  through  this  straight  I  don't  think 
I  shall  ever  trouble  you  again." 

The  pastor  found  in  this  incident  a  text  for  a  very  im 
pressive  sermon  regarding  the  incapacity  of  the  worldly 
mind  to  comprehend  the  things  that  pertain  to  God  and 
his  kingdom.  To  Helga  it  always  remained  a  source  of 
distress  that  she  had  succeeded  so  poorly  in  preparing  the 
old  man  for  the  life  to  come,  and  she  had  no  sympathy 
with  those  who  were  disposed  to  make  the  unhappy  inci 
dent  an  occasion  for  mirth.  I  am  sorry  to  add  that  Yan 
Flint  and  she  had  quite  a  serious  dispute  as  to  how  this 
41  lingering  Norse  paganism,"  as  he  called  it,  ought  prop 
erly  to  be  viewed. 

Old  Magnus's  death,  however,  led  to  even  graver  com 
plications  than  these.  Norderud,  who  had  undertaken  to 
defray  the  expenses  of  the  funeral,  had  sent  the  usual 
notice  to  the  parish  clerk,  who  had  again  communicated 
it  to  the  pastor.  That  gentleman,  however,  was  disposed 
to  view  a  communication  which  came  indirectly  from 
Norderud,  even  though  it  was  a  mere  simple  statement 
of  the  fact  that  an  old  man  had  died,  in  the  light  of  a 
personal  affront,  and  it  was  with  a  good  deal  of  vindictive 
satisfaction  that  he  sat  down  and  wrote  the  following 
answer : 

PARSONAGE  OP  THE  CHURCH  OF  OUR  SAVIOR,  ) 
HARDANGER,  September  20th,  186—  J 

S.  T. 

NILS  AMUNDSON  NORDERUD  : 

From  your  note  of  yesterday  ad 
dressed  to  Mr.  Halvorsou,  the  parish  clerk,  I  infer  that  you  expect  me 
to  officiate  at  the  funeral  of  the  late  Magnus  Throndson  Haeggestad. 
It  will  hardly  surprise  you  when  I  hereby  inform  you  that  I  am  under 
no  obligation,  either  legal  or  moral,  to  comply  with  your  request,  as 
the  deceased  was  not  a  member  of  my  congregation. 


202  FALCONBERO. 

Secondly,  I  beg  leave  to  notify  you  that  I  shall  give  positive  instruc 
tions  to  the  sextons  (and  in  this  I  am  confident  the  trustees,  as  a  body, 
will  support  me)  under  no  circumstances  to  permit  the  body  of  the  said 
Magnus  Throndson  Haeggestad  to  be  deposited  in  the  cemetery  belong 
ing  to  the  Lutheran  Church  of  Hardanger. 

I  therefore  advise  you  to  apply  to  a  preacher  of  some  one  of  the 
numerous  sects  which  infest  this  place,  as  I  have  no  doubt  that  among 
them  you  may  find  some  one  who  is  willing  to  accommodate  you. 

MARCUS  T.  FALCONBERG,  Minister. 

Mr.  Falconberg  thought  this  last  thrust  especially  a 
dexterous  one,  and  chuckled  in  anticipation  of  the  effect 
it  would  have  upon  his  antagonist.  He  was  well  aware 
that  Norderud  was  at  heart  as  stanch  a  Lutheran  as  him 
self,  and  that  rather  than  have  recourse  to  the  "  sects  "  he 
would  bury  the  dead  man  himself.  lie  was  further 
aware  that  Norsemen  do  not  yield  to  the  ancient  Atheni 
ans  in  their  religious  care  for  the  dead,  and  that,  in  their 
opinion,  the  fate  of  the  departed  soul  in  the  hereafter  de 
pends  largely  upon  the  kind  of  earth  in  which  his  perish 
able  remains  are  awaiting  the  sounding  of  the  last  trump 
here  below.  A  hundred  harrowing  tales  had  followed 
them  from  their  old  home,  of  uneasy  ghosts  who  returned 
with  the  midnight  hour  to  revisit  their  earthly  haunts, 
being  unable  to  enter  the  abode  of  the  blest  because  their 
bones  rested  in  unhallowed  ground.  This  subtle  texture 
of  intolerance  and  superstition  time  is  slow  to  unravel, 
and  enlightened  men  like  Norderud  who  in  the  high 
noonday  of  public  life  might  be  inclined  to  regard  Death, 
from  a  Malthusian  point  of  view,  as  rather  a  beneficent 
institution,  still  in  the  privacy  of  their  own  hearts  saw 
him  as  the  dread  old  skeleton  with  the  scythe  and  shud 
dered  at  the  thought  of  incurring  his  displeasure. 

Mr.  Falconberg  had  really  for  once  succeeded  in  giving 
his  enemy  a  painful  shock  of  surprise.  Norderud  was 


MA  GNUS  '£  POSTHUMO  US  CAREER.  203 

utterly  at  a  loss  to  know  what  to  do.  That  the  pastor  was 
trying  to  give  him  a  blow  over  the  dead  man's  shoulder 
(supposing  that  a  dead  man  could  lend  himself  to  that 
attitude)  he  never  for  a  moment  doubted,  and  this,  even 
more  than  his  own  defeat,  filled  his  generous  soul  with  in 
dignation.  When  his  irritation  had  subsided  sufficiently 
to  enable  him  to  weigh  the  question  coolly,  he  dispatched 
a  messenger  to  his  sons,  Knut  and  Thorarin,  in  whose 
good  sense  and  sagacity  he  had  unlimited  confidence.  In 
fact,  he  seldom  decided  any  important  issue  without  hear 
ing  their  counsel.  Amund,  Yan  Flint  and  Einar  were 
also  summoned,  and  after  a  long  consultation  in  "  The 
Citizen"  office  the  following  plan  was  agreed  upon. 
During  the  night  the  father  and  the  three  sons  would  them 
selves  dig  a  grave  on  their  own  lot  in  the  cemetery,  and 
the  next  morning,  which  was  a  Sunday,  they  would  bring 
the  coffin  from  the  house  of  the  deceased  and  place  it  on 
the  edge  of  the  grave.  The  doctor  was  to  speak  to  Mr. 
Falconberg  when  the  service  was  at  an  end  and  lead  him 
across  the  church-yard  to  the  open  grave.  Then,  in  the 
presence  of  all  the  congregation  and  while  the  robes  of 
his  sacred  office  might  be  supposed  to  hide  his  small  per 
sonal  resentments,  he  would  hardly  have  the  heart  to  re 
fuse  to  throw  a  handful  of  earth  upon  a  poor  departed 
sinner. 

The  mood  of  autumn  had  perceptibly  deepened.  The 
oaks  and  maples  along  the  streets  and  in  the  neighboring 
glens  began  to  show  dashes  of  purple  and  crimson  and 
yellow,  a  thin,  faintly  flushed  haze  hung  motionless  over 
the  fields,  and  the  heavens  dozed  in  a  warm,  misty  monot 
ony,  suffused  here  and  there  with  tints  of  more  passion 
ate  coloring.  Although  the  day  was  very  warm,  the  Rev 
erend  Marcus  Falconberg  at  the  appointed  hour  mounted 


204  FALCONBERO. 

the  steps  to  his  pulpit  with  his  usual  firm,  ponderous  dig 
nity,  and  Norderud,  who  sat  in  his  front  pew  leaning  on 
the  head  of  his  cane  in  his  wonted  attitude  of  sober  medi 
tation,  will  testify  that  his  eloquence  could  not  have  been 
more  lustily  aggressive  if  the  thermometer  had  been  at 
zero.  He  pounded  the  velvet  cushions,  which  lined  the 
edge  of  the  pulpit,  with  a  certain  pugnacious  zest  as  if  to 
give  a  palpable  demonstration  of  how  the  enemies  of  God 
ought  to  be  dealt  with,  clenched  his  fists  threateningly 
and  wiped  his  brow  with  an  utter  disregard  for  his  fluted 
ruff  and  wristbands  which,  by  the  time  his  eloquence  had 
exhausted  itself,  had  collapsed  into  a  state  of  disreputable 
limpness. 

When  the  service  was  concluded,  Van  Flint,  according 
to  agreement,  intercepted  the  pastor  as  he  started  on  his 
homeward  way  and  sauntered  leisurely  at  his  side  across 
the  cemetery,  at  the  further  end  of  which  the  parsonage 
was  situated.  For,  according  to  Norse  belief,  the  church 
spreads  its  peace  and  blessing  over  the  abodes  of  the  dead, 
and  they  therefore  always  place  their  burial-ground  in  its 
very  shadow.  Since  the  town  had  grown  up  repeated  at 
tempts  had  been  made  to  induce  them  to  remove  it,  but 
they  had  hitherto  clung  to  the  old  tradition,  and  prayers 
and  threats  had  proved  equally  unavailing. 

"  What  does  that  mean  ? "  exclaimed  Mr.  Falconberg 
in  an  irritated  tone,  as  he  caught  sight  of  Norderud  sur 
rounded  by  a  throng  of  people.  "Is  your  friend,  the 
demagogue,  carrying  his  political  agitations  even  into  the 
house  of  God  ? " 

u  It  is  a  dead  man,"  responded  the  doctor,  calmly, 
"  waiting  to  be  consigned  to  the  earth." 

"  Ah !  "  snarled  the  pastor,  as  the  crowd  fell  aside,  re 
vealing  the  black  coffin  standing  at  the  edge  of  a  grave. 


MA  ONUS'S  POSTHUMO  US  CAREER.  205 

"  So  you  think  you  have  outwitted  me,  do  you  ?  You 
think  I  am  afraid  to  defy  your  honorable  partner  here  in 
the  presence  of  half  the  congregation.  But  you  do  not 
know  me,  sir,  you  do  not  know  me,"  and  the  pastor 
wheeled  around  on  his  heel  and  marched  rapidly  in  the  di 
rection  of  his  house, 

"  Mr.  Falconberg,"  cried  Van  Flint  in  a  tone  of  earn 
est  remonstrance,  "  I  adjure  you  not  to  allow  your  per 
sonal  animosity  to  Mr.  Korderud  to  bias  your  judgment 
in  so  important  a  matter.  Listen  to  me:  it  is  not  to 
Mr.  Norderud  that  you  yield  in  this  instance — it  is  to 
your  own  sense  of  duty,  to  your  own  conscience,  to 
God." 

"  Who  will  presume  to  instruct  me  concerning  my 
duties  to  God  and  to  my  own  conscience  ?  "  answered  the 
pastor,  with  a  sudden  explosion  of  wrath.  "The  man,  I 
tell  you,  was  not  my  parishioner,  and  I  have  nothing  to  do 
with  him  either  living  or  dead." 

Korderud  had  from  his  station  at  the  grave  followed 
Van  Flint  and  the  pastor  with  earnest  watchfulness.  Aa 
he  became  aware  that  the  doctor's  mission  had  failed,  he 
made  his  way  through  the  crowd  and  called  out : 

"Mr.  Pastor!" 

Mr.  Falconberg  faced  abruptly  about. 

"  What  do  you  wish,  sir  ?  "  he  said,  fiercely. 

"  One  moment,  with  your  permission,"  Norderud  went 
on  in  his  quiet,  respectful  way  (for  the  pastor  was  still  in 
his  clerical  robes).  "  I  only  wanted  to  beg  you  to  forgive 
me  for  having  done  what  may  seem  to  you  tricky  and  not 
quite  the  square  thing  to  do.  But  you  see,  Mr.  Pastor,  I 
had  the  dead  body  on  my  hands,  and  the  weather  is  hot, 
and  the  truth  is,  I  didn't  know  what  else  to  do." 

The  church  people  had  now  gathered  in  a  dense  ring 


206  FALCONBERO. 

about  the  three  principal  actors,  and  stood  staring  with 
that  vague  satisfaction  which  most  of  us  are  apt  to  feel 
when  something  unusual  is  going  on,  in  which  our  own 
interests  are  not  directly  concerned. 

"  May  I  ask  you,"  inquired  the  minister,  with  forced 
composure,  "  if  you  did  not  receive  a  note  from  me,  in 
which  I  gave  you  my  advice  as  to  how  you  might  dispose 
of  the  dead  body?" 

"  I  could  hardly  believe  that  the  pastor  was  in  earnest 
about  that.  Old  Magnus — God  have  mercy  on  his  soul ! 
— whatever  his  failings  may  have  been,  was  of  the  right 
faith,  and  it  would  be  a  great  sin  and  shame  if  I  were  to 
dig  a  hole  for  him  and  throw  him  into  it  like  a  dog,  away 
from  his  countrymen  and  without  having  the  church-book 
read  over  him.  It  is  criminals  and  folks  that  take  their 
own  lives  that  are  treated  in  that  way,  and  not  Christians. 
And  I  may  say  this,  Mr.  Pastor,  that  if  you  have  a  grudge 
against  me,  as  I  know  you  have,  it  would  be  well  if  you 
would  let  it  be  all  square  only  for  to-day,  and  then  to-morrow 
you  may  take  it  up  again  where  you  left  it  yesterday.  But 
I  should  never  have  peace  if  I  was  to  think  that  a  dead 
man,  who  can't  defend  himself,  had  to  suffer  because  of  the 
disagreements  that  are  between  you  and  me." 

The  pastor  made  a  movement  of  impatience,  then 
thrust  his  hands  into  the  side  pockets  of  his  black  robe, 
and  let  his  eyes  wander  over  the  multitude  with  an  air  of 
supreme  indifference.  He  was  wondering  at  his  own 
composure,  vaguely  admiring  it,  and  more  determined 
than  ever  to  stand  his  ground.  Moreover,  he  was  blind 
enough  to  interpret  .Norderud's  respectfulness  as  humility, 
arising  from  the  consciousness  of  having  been  vanquished. 
Little  did  he  know  how  that  sturdy,  generous  soul,  with 
its  deep  sense  of  justice,  was  inwardly  boiling  with  right- 


MAGNU&S  POSTHUMOUS  CAREER.  207 

eous  indignation,  and  at  that  very  moment  visiting  him 
with  its  severest  condemnation. 

For  several  minutes  the  silence  was  oppressive.  Every 
one  stood  listening  to  his  own  heart-beats,  and  wondering 
what  was  to  happen.  Then  the  crowd  suddenly  fell 
apart,  and  two  women  advanced  toward  the  pastor.  The 
one  was  tall  and  stately,  dressed  in  somber  colors  and  with 
a  dark  veil  over  her  face, — the  other,  small,  plump,  and 
pale,  and  her  eyes  were  swollen  with  weeping.  It  was 
Helga  and  Annie  Lisbeth,  the  daughter  of  the  deceased. 
Mr.  Falconberg  was  suddenly  roused.  lie  fell  back  sev 
eral  steps,  and  sent  Helga  a  flaming  glance,  to  which  she 
responded  with  a  fierce  Hash  from  under  her  veil. 

"  Pastor,"  faltered  Annie  Lisbeth,  while  the  large  tears 
trickled  down  her  cheeks,  "  my  father — he  is  dead — he 
can  do  no  one  any  harm  now.  Would  you  not  say  a 
prayer  over  him — and — and — throw  earth  upon  him  ?  " 

A  strong  movement  of  sympathy  stirred  the  crowd. 
There  were  no  more  indifferent  faces.  The  doctor,  who 
was  as  tender-hearted  as  a  woman,  turned  abruptly  away. 
Several  rough  coat-sleeves  were  seen  stealing  up  to  the 
corners  of  moist  blue  eyes,  and  here  and  there  a  subdued 
sob  was  heard.  The  simple  appeal  had  melted  all  hearts 
— except  the  pastor's. 

"  Child,"  he  began  in  a  hard,  didactic  tone,  "  you  do  not 
know  what  you  ask.  I  have  nothing  against  your  dead 
father,  and  would  prefer  to  see  him  properly  buried. 
But  here  a  principle  is  involved,  and  I  cannot  yield.  Do 
not  importune  me  any  more.  It  is  of  no  avail.  And 
now,"  he  added,  turning  from  the  young  girl  to  the  con 
gregation,  "  I  wish  to  say  in  conclusion,  that  this  should 
be  a  warning  to  those  who  hang  about  the  church,  sharing 
in  its  privileges  without  contributing  to  its  support." 


208  FALCONBERG. 

Ilelga  stood  listening  to  these  hard,  unfeeling  words, 
and  she  burned  with  anger.  She  yearned  to  give  vent  to 
all  the  tumult  which  raged  within  her,  but  somehow  she 
had  a  presentiment  that  she  would  break  down  and  end, 
woman's  fashion,  with  a  tearful  appeal,  and  this  fear  checked 
her  eager  tongue.  So  she  was  content  to  draw  herself  up 
to  her  full  height,  imagining  that  she  was  in  this  way  giv 
ing  expression  to  her  mute  scorn  and  defiance.  Annie 
Lisbeth  leaned  upon  her  arm,  weeping.  Mr.  Falconberg, 
noticing  the  challenging  erectness  of  her  attitude,  and 
dreading  another  scene,  moved  away  as  hastily  as  the 
dignity  of  his  robes  would  permit.  The  crowd  broke  up 
into  smaller  groups,  and  continued  to  discuss  what  had 
taken  place  with  the  ponderous,  monosyllabic  earnest 
ness  of  excited  Norsemen.  Norderud  and  his  sons  lift 
ed  the  coffin  once  more  upon  their  wagon,  and  drove 
home. 

During  the  afternoon,  the  intense  feverish  stillness,  which 
was  not  rest,  but  rather  the  forced  equilibrium  of  strong 
conflicting  powers,  was  suddenly  broken,  and  the  world 
began  to  draw  long,  refreshing  breaths.  Fitful  gusts  of 
wind  coursed  aimlessly  through  the  air,  the  red,  misty  bar 
which  ran  like  a  dusty  path  of  flame  along  the  western 
horizon  darkened  and  grew  broader  ;  strange,  vague  cries, 
which  seemed  to  come  from  nowhere,  rose  heavenward, 
impressing,  as  it  were,  some  subtler  organ  than  the  outward 
ear,  and  a  brilliant  net-work  of  lightning  illuminated  the 
intervals  between  the  heavy  embankments  of  cloud.  In 
the  Norderud  mansion,  doors  and  window-shutters  were 
closed,  and  the  bell-handle  was  wound  with  black  crape. 
In  the  sitting-room  sat  Norderud,  tall  and  solemn,  with  the 
large,  silver-clasped  family  Bible  lying  open  on  the  table 
before  him.  He  had  been  reading  in  the  Gospel  of  Saint 


MAGNUS'S  POSTHUMOUS  CAREER.  209 

Matthew  of  how  David  and  his  men  ate  the  show-bread, 
which  only  the  priests  were  permitted  to  eat,  and  still,  by 
the  Savior,  were  accounted  blameless.  In  the  middle  of 
the  room  stood  the  coffin,  supported  on  six  chairs,  and 
around  the  walls  the  various  members  of  the  family  were 
seated,  listening  in  grave  silence  to  the  father's  exposition 
of  the  Scriptural  lesson.  Einar,  Ilelga,  Yan  Flint,  and 
Ingrid  were  all  there,  but  somehow  they  only  saw  each 
other  as  through  a  haze.  The  solemn  occasion  had  pushed 
all  personal  emotions,  if  not  into  oblivion,  then  at  least 
into  a  dimmer,  more  remote  region  of  consciousness. 

There  is  no  need  of  dwelling  on  the  details  of  the  dis 
cussion  which  followed.  The  moral  of  the  lesson  was 
plain  enough.  If  David  had,  in  a  moment  of  extreme 
need,  done  that  which  was  forbidden,  and  still  been  blame 
less,  there  would  also  be  forgiveness  for  those  here  assem 
bled,  if  in  their  distress  they  departed  from  the  letter  of 
the  law,  adhering  the  more  reverently  to  its  spirit. 

Six  hours  later,  when  night  had  folded  the  world  in  her 
soft  cloak  of  darkness,  Norderud,  with  his  tall  sons,  again 
emerged  from  the  house,  carrying  between  them  the  home 
less  corpse  which  the  earth  had  refused  to  receive.  They 
placed  the  coffin  upon  the  wagon  which  stood  ready  at  the 
door.  Thorarin  took  the  reins,  and  the  horses  slowly  moved 
off.  Then  came  Helga,  leaning  on  Einar's  arm  (for  in  the 
darkness  they  had  felt  irresistibly  drawn  to  each  other), 
and  the  doctor,  shyly  supporting  the  sobbing  Annie  Lis- 
beth,  who,  in  her  helplessness,  rested  heavily  upon  him. 
The  heavens  were  now  girded  with  storm-driven  clouds, 
leaving  a  broad  path-way  of  blue  from  the  zenith  north 
ward,  through  which  some  faint  stars  peeped  forth  with  a 
timid,  uncertain  glimmer.  Now  and  then  the  overcharged 
batteries  of  the  skies  sent  forth  their  swift  Hashes  of  flame, 


210  FALCONBERO. 

and  sullen  mutterings  in  the  distance  indicated  the  ap 
proaching  march  of  the  thunder. 

Einar  and  Helga,  it  is  only  just  to  say,  had  set  out  on 
this  midnight  expedition  without  any  thought  of  them 
selves.  They  had  both  been  prompted  by  a  generous  de 
sire  to  stand  by  Norder ud,  and  to  share  the  burden  of 
blame  which  would  fall  upon  him,  when  his  action  should 
become  known.  Helga,  moreover,  had  met  all  her  mother's 
opposition  by  the  argument  that  Annie  Lisbeth  needed 
her  presence,  that  she  might  not  be  the  only  woman  among 
so  many  men.  But  no  sooner  had  the  darkness  closed 
around  them,  than  she  felt  a  wild  tumult  of  happiness, 
against  which  both  reason  and  conscience  were  helpless. 
It  was  the  spontaneous  reaction  of  healthy,  full-blooded 
youth  against  the  ascetic  restraints  which,  in  her  self-sub 
duing  ardor,  she  had  imposed  upon  herself.  For  a  vigor 
ous  young  soul,  if  the  artificial  pressure  be  but  momenta 
rily  removed,  will  bound  back  into  its  natural  attitude  of 
joyous  energy  as  readily  as  a  bended  branch  recovers  its 
wonted  position.  And  Helga,  with  all  her  large  capacity 
for  happiness,  had  known  so  little  of  it.  She  had  only 
felt  it  as  something  dimly  divined,  which  appealed  strongly 
to  something  kindred  in  herself,  and  stirred  her  with  its 
vague  promise.  In  the  world  of  which  she  was  a  -part  and 
which  was  a  part  of  her,  and  by  whose  laws,  vital  or  petty, 
she  had  unconsciously  been  governed,  every  step  toward 
the  realization  of  her  supreme  wish  had  been  checked  by 
a  complication  of  motives  which  it  was  beyond  her  power 
to  unravel.  But  here,  in  this  vast  void  of  gloom,  she 
seemed  somehow  withdrawn  from  it.  Its  voices  could  no 
longer  reach  her,  and  the  strong  needs  and  desires  of  her 
soul  stood  before  her  in  their  primal  nudity.  For  this 
great  solemnity  of  the  night  rouses  the  primitive  man  in 


MA  GNUS  '£  POSTHUMO  US  CAREER.  211 

all  of  us.  The  day  too  often  cripples  our  most  generous 
resolves  by  its  multitude  of  motives  and  counter-motives. 
Surely  large  deeds  are  more  easily  wrought  in  the  night, 
— both  for  good  and  for  evil. 

Very  little  was  said  as  they  walked  on  through  the  great 
stillness,  clinging  to  each  other  with  happy  heedlessness, 
each  glowing  responsively  with  a  supreme  trust  in  the 
other's  love.  Had  they  been  alone,  it  would  have  been 
almost  easy  to  him  to  unlock  to  her  the  hidden  chamber 
of  his  heart,  and  reveal  the  mute  guilt  and  agony  which 
had  so  long  struggled  for  utterance  ;  and  to  her,  I  believe, 
when  the  first  shock  was  past,  it  would  have  been  easy  to 
forgive.  In  this  moment  all  else  seemed  small  and  insig 
nificant,  except  the  great  fact  that  she  loved  him.  And 
even  a  grave  error  would  only  have  changed  her  attitude 
toward  him  in  so  far  as  it  would  have  called  out  a  more 
abundant  compassion. 

They  now  paused  at  the  entrance  to  the  church-yard. 
Norderud  unlocked  the  gate  ;  Amund  and  Thorarin  each 
lighted  a  torch  which  they  had  brought  witli  them,  and 
all  the  men  took  hold  of  the  coffin  and  carried  it  to  the 
edge  of  the  grave.  Amund  had  handed  his  torch  to  Ilelga, 
while  Einar  had  seized  a  rope  and  assisted  the  others  in 
lowering  the  dead  down  into  the  earth.  But  no  sooner 
did  Ilelga  feel  herself  alone  than  the  terror  of  the  situa 
tion  urged  itself  upon  her.  The  presence  of  death,  the 
darkness,  and  the  dread  desolation  rushed  upon  her  with 
overwhelming  force ;  she  saw  the  coffin  sinking  down — 
down,  and  she  seemed  herself  to  be  sinking  with  it.  It 
grew  dark  before  her  eyes,  her  hands  trembled,  and  a  sud 
den  pallor  spread  over  her  countenance..  Einar,  seeing 
the  wild  terror  of  her  face,  let  go  the  rope,  leaped  across 
the  grave,  and  she  fell  helplessly  into  his  arms.  The 


212  FALCONBERO. 

torch  dropped  from  her  hand ;  the  coffin  fell,  with  a  hol 
low  thump,  down  into  the  deep.  Annie  Lisbeth  gave  a 
shriek  of  horror.  A  broad  sheet  of  flame  darted  across 
the  sky,  illumining  the  scene  for  an  instant  with  its  weird 
glare,  and  again  the  thick  darkness  closed  about  them. 
But  out  of  the  darkness  Norderud's  voice  rose  in  loud, 
beseeching  tones,  calling  upon  Him  who  knoweth  the 
heart  of  man  to  judge  this  deed  according  to  the  motive 
which  prompted  it,  even  if  the  deed  itself  were  wrong  in 
His  sight ;  imploring  Him,  out  of  His  great  compassion, 
to  give  His  peace  which  passeth  all  understanding  unto 
this  dead  man,  whom  they  had  sunk  into  the  earth 
stealthily  at  the  midnight  hour,  without  priest  and  with 
out  priestly  blessing,  as  though  he  were  a  thief  and  a 
murderer.  The  wind  broke  with  fierce  whistling  through 
the  trees  above,  and  large  drops  of  rain  were  beginning 
to  fall.  Then  the  men  all  arose,  filled  the  grave  hastily 
with  earth,  and  hurried  homeward.  Einar  and  the  doctor 
had  walked  on  in  advance  with  Ilelga,  whom  the  cold 
wind  and  the  rain  had  restored  to  consciousness. 

At  the  gate  of  the  Norderud  mansion  they  were  met  by 
Mrs.  Norderud  and  Ingrid,  who  were  anxiously  awaiting 
their  return.  Hot  coffee — the  worthy  matron's  panacea 
for  all  ills,  from  toothache  to  an  evil  conscience — was 
promptly  served ;  but  gloom  had  settled  on  all,  and  the 
conversation  refused  to  flow.  Each  longed  for  a  moment 
of  solitude,  to  bring  clearness  into  the  confused  impres 
sions  of  the  night,  and  Ingrid,  who  had  been  making  the 
round  of  the  guest-chambers  to  see  that  everything  was 
in  order,  caused  something  of  a  sensation  when  she  an 
nounced  that  the  company  was  at  liberty  to  retire. 


CHAPTEK    XYI. 


PURITANISM  was  too  positive  an  element  in  the  Ameri 
can  civilization  to  be  overcome  by  any  later  influences, 
however  strong  and  enduring.  It  still  pervades  our  whole 
continent  as  a  silent  force,  quenching  the  glitter  of  every 
picturesque  new-comer.  The  vivid  colors  of  national 
costume  are  gradually  toned  down  to  a  demure  somberness, 
and  soon  utterly  vanish.  There  were  no  silver  brooches 
of  elaborately  fantastic  design,  no  scarlet  bodices,  no  red- 
peaked  caps  to  be  seen  in  Hardanger.  The  immigrant 
instinctively  felt  that  these  picturesque  details  of  dress 
alienated  him  from  his  fellow-men,  and  who,  with  all  the 
pride  of  nationality,  wishes  forever  to  remain  a  stranger  ? 
Moreover,  individuality  in  costume  was  one  of  those 
things  which  popular  opinion  in  Hardanger  least  of  all 
tolerated.  That  period  was  not  very  remote  when  a  shirt- 
collar,  even  though  it  were  of  paper,  was  supposed  to  be 
indicative  of  aristocratic  proclivities  and  consequent  dis 
loyalty  to  the  republic,  and  when  blacked  boots  and  clean 
cuffs  were  regarded  as  a  direct  challenge  to  the  commu 
nity.  Even  in  the  style  of  beards,  in  manners,  and  in 
choice  of  idioms,  this  same  tendency  toward  democratic 
uniformity  was  distinctly  perceptible.  A  certain  stoic 
composure,  even  in  the  most  exciting  situations,  was  held 


214  FALGONBERO. 

to  be  an  indispensable  attribute  of  civic  dignity,  and  vio 
lent  gestures  and  exclamations  of  wonder,  unmixed  with 
profanity,  were  the  marks  of  a  neophyte. 

An  outside  observer,  judging  from  this  stoic  disposition 
and  apathetic  demeanor  of  the  community,  might  have 
been  justified  in  the  conclusion  that  Emerson  was  its  fav 
orite  philosopher,  Bryant  its  poet,  and  "  The  Nation"  its 
political  gospel.  But  I  am  forced  to  admit  that  such  con 
clusions  would  have  proved  very  unsafe — that,  as  regards 
its  literary  tastes,  Hardanger,  like  the  house  in  Scripture 
which  is  doomed  to  fall,  was  sadly  at  variance  with  itself. 
To  the  eyes  of  the  Hardanger  youth,  the  flam  ing  show- bills 
of  certain  obscure  New  York  weeklies,  which  covered 
walls  and  fences,  possessed  a  baleful  fascination,  and  in 
the  public  schools  dime  novels  were  often  found  hidden 
among  the  leaves  of  patriotic  "  Sixth  Readers  "  and  sober- 
minded  text-books  on  mathematics.  Among  voting  pater 
familias  there  were  of  course  many,  and  perhaps  a  major 
ity,  who  in  public  praised  the  stately  dignity  of  "  The 
Citizen  "  ;  but  even  among  these  there  were  some  who 
privately  gloated  over  the  feverish  rhetoric  and  scurrilous 
witticisms  which  filled  the  columns  of  "  The  Democratic 
Banner." 

There  was,  however,  at  this  particular  time  a  legitimate 
reason  why  even  worthy  Norse  fathers  should  not  entirely 
ignore  the  existence  of  the  obnoxious  "Banner."  The 

o 

hostility  between  the  two  papers,  which  had  of  late  been 
growing  languid  and  intermittent,  expending  itself  in 
veiled  thrusts  and  contemptuous  epithets,  chiefly  of  a  per 
sonal  character,  had  all  of  a  sudden  gathered  a  dramatic 
force  which  had  quite  startled  the  community.  As  soon 
as  the  darkness  had  rolled  away  from  the  unconsecrated 
grave  in  the  church-yard,  the  story  of  Norderud's  daring 


* '  BA  NNER  "   VERSUS  ' '  CITIZEN. "  215 

deed  spread  through  the  village  like  fire  in  withered  grass. 
Some  asserted  that  he  had  read  the  whole  burial-service 
out  of  the  liturgy,  and  that  Finnson  had  assumed  the  role 
of  parish  clerk,  singing  the  hymn  and  saying  "  amen  "  at 
the  proper  places  ;  before  long  it  was  even  suspected  that 
he  had  invested  himself  with  the  clerical  robes,  which 
were  kept  in  the  sacristy  of  the  church,  and  had,  in  the 
dead  of  night,  been  going  through  a  sort  of  mock  per 
formance,  only  to  gratify  his  hatred  of  the  pastor.  It  is 
needless  to  say  that  among  those  who  knew  Norderud  well, 
such  rumors  could  find  little  credence ;  but  among  the  far 
larger  class  of  later  immigrants,  who  knew  him  only  as  a 
man  who  had  been  more  fortunate  than  they,  and  vaguely 
feared  him  as  the  representative  of  dangerous,  un-Norwe- 
gian  ideas,  no  report  seemed  too  extravagant  for  belief. 
No  one  who  does  not  know  the  deep-seated  reverence  of  a 
Norseman's  nature  and  the  affection  with  which  he  clings 
even  to  the  outward  ceremonial  of  the  established  church, 
can  imagine  the  horror  with  which  these  rumors  were  re 
ceived.  English  conservatism  is  proverbially  a  hard  and 
stubborn  thing  to  deal  with ;  but,  after  all,  it  is  not  abso 
lutely  fixed  and  unbending ;  it  is  like  a  dam  which  wisely 
regulates  the  expenditure  of  national  strength,  occasionally 
opening  its  flood-gates  when  the  pressure  is  found  to  be 
too  severe.  But  Norse  conservatism  is  as  rigid,  unelastic, 
unyielding  as  the  primeval  granite  which  was  the  nation's 
cradle ;  wherefore  progress  in  Norway  is  rarely  the  result 
of  individual  growth,  but  rather  the  inevitable  widening 
of  the  gulf  which  separates  each  new  generation  from  the 
old.  People  with  national  traditions  like  these  are  already 
by  nature  molded  in  sympathy  with  the  Puritanic  spirit 
of  the  New  World,  and  in  a  land  where  radicalism  of  all 
shades  flourishes  and  liberty  is  apt  to  run  riot,  the  Norse 


216  FALCONBERO. 

immigration  furnishes  the  sort  of  ballast  which  we  are 
especially  in  need  of. 

To  check  the  ever-spreading  rumors,  Norderud  inserted 
in  "  The  Citizen  "  a  very  sober  paragraph,  stating  that  on 
the  23d  of  September,  186 — he  himself  and  a  few  friends 
(whose  names  were  given)  had  consigned  the  mortal 
remains  of  the  late  Magnus  Throndson  Haeggestad  to  the 
earth ;  that  they  had  done  this,  forced  by  circumstances, 
without  the  knowledge  and  consent  of  the  pastor,  because 
the  deceased,  although  not  a  regular  member  of  Mr.  Fal- 
conberg's  congregation,  nevertheless  by  faith  and  ancestry 
belonged  to  the  Evangelical  Lutheran  Church.  Whatever 
blame  there  might  be  in  the  matter  he  took  upon  himself 
solely,  as  those  who  with  him  had  participated  in  the  affair 
had  done  so  only  at  his  request.  Nothing  could  be  more 
neutral  in  tone  and  less  calculated  to  stir  up  bad  feeling 
than  this  sober-minded  announcement,  and  Norderud  did 
flatter  himself  that  the  affair  would  here  be  at  an  end. 
What  made  him  particularly  anxious  to  bring  about  this 
result  was  the  fact  that  the  Republican  State  Committee 
had  formally  requested  him  to  become  their  candidate  for 
the  vacant  seat  in  the  state  senate,  and  when  he  hesitated 
to  accept  the  nomination  had  given  him  many  polite  as 
surances  that  his  popularity  among  his  countrymen  made 
him  the  most  available  candidate  they  could  put  into  the 
field.  In  his  heart  of  hearts  he  was  quite  inclined  to  coin 
cide  in  their  judgment,  but  if  he  wras  to  accept,  which  he 
thought  not  unlikely,  it  would  be  disastrous  to  complicate 
the  campaign  by  the  introduction  of  side  issues  which 
might  alienate  a  large  class  of  voters.  Hence,  although 
he  never  for  a  moment  regretted  his  course  toward  the 
pastor,  the  less  said  about  the  nocturnal  funeral  the  better. 
For,  from  a  political  point  of  view,  the  pastor  was  a  very 


"BANNER"   VERSUS  "  CITIZEN."  217 

formidable  opponent  whom  it  was  well  worth  an  effort  to 
conciliate.  And  let  it  argue  no  blame  to  Norderud  that 
under  this  new  combined  impulse  of  duty  and  ambition 
he  began  to  busy  himself  with  various  benevolent  schemes 
which  he  was  confident  would  meet  with  the  pastor's  ap 
proval.  His  charities  had  always  been  extensive,  but  they 
had  hitherto  been  of  a  half-clandestine  and  entirely  un 
official  character.  He  hated  anything  like  display,  and  it 
made  him  positively  unhappy  if  anybody  came  to  thank 
him.  Now,  however,  he  was  less  averse  to  dispensing  his 
benevolence  through  the  legitimate  ecclesiastical  channels. 
But  I  regret  to  state  that  in  the  present  case  he  was  reck 
oning  without  his  host.  The  supposed  conciliatory  para 
graph  in  "  The  Citizen  "  had  had  the  very  opposite  effect 
upon  Mr.  Falconberg. 

"  He  even  dares  to  challenge  me  in  the  face  of  the 
whole  community,"  said  the  irascible  prelate,  with  that 
angry  snarl  in  his  voice  which  was  far  more  dangerous 
than  his  usual  tone  of  loud  denunciation.  "First,  he 
wantonly  profanes  the  sanctity  of  my  office,  and  then 
publicly  avows  that  he  did  it,  flaunting  my  own  power- 
lessness  in  my  face  because  in  this  barbarous  country  I 
have  no  legal  means  of  punishing  him." 

Nils  Nyhus,  to  whom  these  words  were  addressed,  had 
come  to  sound  the  pastor's  mind  in  regard  to  Norderud's 
participation  in  the  church  charities,  but  his  preliminary 
survey  of  the  field  convinced  him  that  the  mention  of  his 
friend's  benevolent  intentions  was  for  the  moment  unad- 
visable.  It  would  only  give  his  antagonist  an  advantage 
which  he  would  not  scruple  to  make  use  of.  Mr.  Nyhus 
therefore  retired  with  the  mournful  reflection  that  the 
world  was  fast  coining  to  pieces.  Between  the  general 
government  at  Washington  which  tolerated  a  turn-coat  in 
10 


218  FALCONBERQ. 

the  presidential  chair  and  allowed  roads  and  bridges  to 
go  to  ruin  (Mr.  Nyhus  was  still  slightly  mixed  up  on  the 
subject  of  governmental  functions),  and  a  church  organ 
ization  ruled  by  a  man  who  persisted  in  quarreling  with 
his  best  parishioners,  there  was  very  little  which  an  hon 
est  man  could  contemplate  with  any  degree  of  satisfaction. 

Of  course  Norderud  knew  Mr.  Falconberg's  combative 
temperament  too  well  to  suppose  that  he  would  quietly 
pocket  an  insult,  even  though  it  were  an  imaginary  one. 
His  only  wonder  was  as  to  what  shape  his  resentment 
would  take.  It  was  therefore  something  of  a  relief  when 
the  next  issue  of  "  The  Banner  "  brought  out  an  article 
with  the  expected  signature,  abundantly  sprinkled  with 
Biblical  quotations,  comparing  him  to  Samson  because  he 
had  had  the  seven  locks  of  his  strength  shorn  off  by  the 
Philistine  harlot  of  ambition.  The  article  was  written  in 
an  amusingly  supercilious  tone  and  from  a  strictly  pas 
toral  point  of  view.  The  writer's  only  care  seemed  to  be 
to  save  Norderud's  soul,  which  he  felt  convinced  was  on 
the  broad  way  to  destruction.  The  burial  of  Magnus  was 
represented  as  a  shrewd  bid  for  popularity,  a  demagogic 
effort,  on  Norderud's  part,  to  identify  himself  with  the 
interests  of  the  poor  whose  only  wealth  was  their  vote. 
He  wound  up  with  a  devout  prayer  that  God  might 
change  the  unregenerate  heart,  forgive  the  sinner  his 
misdoings,  and  not  visit  them,  according  to  His  menace, 
upon  the  third  and  fourth  generations. 

It  may  seem  incredible  that  any  man  in  the  present 
century  could  write  in  this  tone,  but  let  any  one  who  be 
lieves  the  above  report  exaggerated  refer  to  the  printed 
controversies  between  the  two  Scandinavian  synods  of  the 
West  and  he  will  find  abundant  parallels.  And  Norderud 
was  too  well  accustomed  to  that  style  of  literature  to  be 


"BANNER"   VERSUS  "  CITIZEN."  219 

greatly  surprised ;  although,  to  be  sure,  the  blood  did 
mount  in  a  fuller  current  to  his  head  when  he  saw  the  in 
terpretation  that  was  put  upon  the  most  unselfish  act  he 
had  performed  in  all  his  life.  As  for  submitting  meekly 
to  this  kind  of  treatment  it  never  for  a  moment  occurred 
to  him.  While,  after  his  fashion,  he  sat  ruminating  over 
the  insulting  phrases,  they  seemed  to  eat  like  a  corrosive 
acid  ever  more  deeply  into  his  mind.  At  the  end  of  an 
hour  he  was  thoroughly  roused,  determined  to  vindicate 
his  dignity  and  to  return  blow  for  blow.  His  wife,  who 
had  watched  him  in  sympathetic  silence  from  her  seat  at 
the  loom,  now  advanced  half  timidly  to  the  middle  of  the 
room  where  she  paused,  waiting  for  some  look  of  encour 
agement  to  permit  her  to  share  his  trouble. 

"  You  do  not  look  quite  like  yourself,  Nils,"  she  said. 
"  Is  there  anything  I  can  do  for  you  ?  " 

"No,  thank  you,  Karen,"  he  answered,  with  grave 
kindliness,  "  you  can  do  nothing." 

Norderud  was  not  usually  subject  to  caprices ;  in  his 
house  he  was  the  kindest,  most  even-tempered  man  that 
could  well  be  imagined.  This  look  of  brooding  solemnity 
which  had  so  suddenly  come  over  him,  therefore  filled  his 
wife  with  apprehension.  She  had  the  profoundest  re 
spect  for  the  powers  of  his  mind,  and  was  inclined  to  be 
lieve  that  there  never  was  a  man  who  was  so  overburdened 
with  important  duties  as  he.  It  seemed  almost  like  pre 
sumption  on  her  part  to  attempt  to  fathom  or  even  to  un 
derstand  them.  Once,  to  be  sure,  in  the  early  days  of 
their  marriage,  while  they  were  both  plain  Norse  peasants, 
it  had  been  different.  Then  he  had  of  his  own  accord 
confided  to  her  all  his  plans  and  his  ever  benevolent  am 
bitions,  and  she  had  differed  from  him  or  assented  as  her 
inborn  sagacity  and  practical  sense  might  prompt  her. 


220  FALCONDEUG. 

But  it  is  one  of  the  tragic  phases  of  immigration  that  it 
invariably  offers  ampler  conditions  for  intellectual  growth 
to  man  than  it  does  to  woman.  If  Nils  and  Karen  Nor- 
derud  had  never  left  their  native  land  they  would  have 
remained  in  their  early  bond  of  equal  ignorance ;  the 
wife  would  then  have  had  no  sense  of  an  intellectual  dis 
tance  between  herself  and  her  husband,  no  consciousness 
of  some  loftier  region  in  his  mind  which  it  would  be  vain 
for  her  to  attempt  to  explore.  In  their  case,  however, 
this  distance  was  not  really  great  enough  to  exclude  mu 
tual  sympathy,  and  to  open  the  way  for  tragic  incidents. 
Their  early  love  wras  still  as  vital  as  ever,  and  their  mu 
tual  trust  none  the  less  for  the  tacit  admission  of  a  differ 
ence  in  intellectual  reach. 

Mrs.  Norderud's  standing  remedy  for  troubles  which 
were  too  intricate  for  her  own  comprehension  was  to  send 
for  Doctor  Van  Flint,  whose  wisdom  she  believed  to  be 
second  only  to  that  of  her  husband.  So  in  the  present  in 
stance  she  dispatched  a  messenger  to  the  doctor  with  the 
request  that  "  if  he  would  drop  in,  as  it  were  by  accident, 
she  would  be  greatly  obliged  to  him."  The  doctor  well 
understood  what  this  injunction  meant  and  with  a  little 
genial  hypocrisy  managed  the  "  accident "  to  perfection. 
Nordemd's  countenance  immediately  brightened  as  he  en 
tered  ;  he  returned  his  greeting  with  a  familiar  nod,  and 
wirhout  a  word  handed  him  "  The  Banner." 

"  That  is  exactly  what  I  came  to  talk  with  you  about," 
said  the  doctor,  throwing  himself  into  an  arm-chair  and 
rubbing  his  spectacles  meditatively  while  he  spoke.  "  It  is 
just  what  might  be  expected  from  that  quarter.  All  that 
about  your  soul,  however,  I  think  is  rather  good.  Only 
the  snarl  of  personal  anger  hisses  rather  too  audibly 
through  his  trumpet  tones  of  sacred  indignation." 


"BANNER"   VERSUS  "  CITIZEN."  221 

"  And  what  do  you  think  we  ought  to  do  ? " 

"  What  ought  we  to  do  ?  In  the  first  place  we  ought 
no  longer  shoot  with  blank  cartridges.  The  pastor  han 
dles  things  in  a  shockingly  ungloved  manner ;  he  has 
himself  set  the  example,  and  we  ought  in  return  to  roll 
up  our  sleeves  and  on  our  side  show  at  least  an  equal 
amount  of  rhetorical  energy." 

Mrs.  Korderud  had  again  resumed  her  seat  at  the  loom, 
and  occasionally  sent  the  shuttle  flying  with  a  feigned  air 
of  pre-occupation  while  at  the  same  time  she  leaned  for 
ward  and  listened  with  anxious  interest  to  the  conversa 
tion. 

"  There  is  one  thing  which  troubles  me  in  this  matter," 
began  Norderud,  after  a  pause.  "  I  have  been  requested 
to  accept  the  Republican  nomination  for  the  state  sen 
ate " 

"Good!"  interrupted  Yan  Flint.  "That  will  give  a 
capital  start  to  the  paper."" 

"  And  you  don't  think  that  this  controversy  will  hurt 
my  prospects  as  a  candidate  ?  " 

"  Not  in  the  least.  It  will  rather  infuse  fresh  life  into 
an  otherwise  dull  campaign." 

"You  have  often  told  me,  Doctor,"  said  Norderud,  with 
a  futile  effort  to  suppress  a  smile  (for  the  doctor's  cheer 
fulness  was  strangely  contagious),  "  that  your  policy  is  to 
vote  for  the  worst  man,  as  the  best  means  to  bring  about 
that  crisis  which  only  can  regenerate  our  political  system. 
It  is  very  flattering  to  me  to  know  that  it  is  probably  on 
the  same  principle  that  you  are  advocating  my  candi 
dacy." 

"  My  principles  are  made  of  very  flexible  stuff,  Mr.  Nor- 
dernd,"  responded  Yan  Flint,  chuckling.  "And,  more 
over,  if  a  man  should  not  have  the  privilege  of  entertain- 


222  FALCONBERO. 

ing  a  few  inconsistencies  in  himself,  life  would  be  rather 
a  dull  affair.  Your  toga  Candida,  to  be  sure,  is  quite  a 
virgin  garment  as  yet — has  no  invisible  stains,  that  1 
know  of,  because  it  has  never  been  worn.  But,  to  be 
serious,  since  our  Republican  statesmen  have  had  an  at 
tack  of  virtue — which  is  by  no  means  a  frequent  occur 
rence — you  have  really  no  right  to  defeat  their  good  in 
tentions  by  refusing  the  nomination.  Even  if  you  are 
defeated  you  will  be  none  the  worse  for  it." 

It  was  true,  the  doctor  had  on  several  occasions,  when 
Congress  had  committed  an  act  of  more  than  the  average 
stupidity,  pledged  himself  to  the  policy  of  supporting  the 
worst  candidate,  in  order  that  he  might  have  the  satisfac 
tion  of  seeing  "the  whole  thing  going  to  the  devil — the 
sooner,  the  better."  lie  was  one  of  those  men  wrho,  be 
cause  they  refuse  to  take  a  superficially  optimistic  view  of 
public  affairs,  get  the  reputation  of  being  rather  unpatri 
otic  ;  and,  curiously  enough,  he  never  took  the  pains  in 
conversation  to  correct  this  impression.  Nevertheless,  he 
followed  public  events  with  the  keenest  watchfulness,  and 
felt  anything  which  compromised  the  nation's  honor  as  if 
it  had  been  a  personal  misfortune.  He  had  very  decided 
opinions  on  the  subject  of  the  currency  question  and  civil 
service  reform  (in  which  he  anticipated  statesmen  of  a 
later  day),  and — what  was  a  continual  puzzle  to  his  near 
est  surroundings — these  opinions  kept  cropping  out  often, 
in  the  doctor's  identical  phraseology,  in  leading  newspa 
pers,  in  the  state  legislatures,  and  even  in  the  halls  of 
Congress.  The  fact  was,  the  doctor  kept  a  very  firm 
hold  upon  his  friends,  many  of  whom  occupied  important 
positions  in  politics  and  journalism,  and  through  his  ex 
tensive  correspondence  he  was  unweariedly  asserting  his 
influence  in  order  to  prepare  the  way  for  the  two  meas- 


"BANNER"  VERSUS  "  CITIZEN."  223 

nres  of  reform  which  he  had  most  closely  at  heart.  Nor- 
derud,  however,  had  long  ago  discovered  the  key  to  the 
en  iff  mas  in  Yan  Flint's  character,  and  listened  to  the  con- 

o  ' 

tradictions  of  his  alternating  moods  with  unwondering 
composure,  as  if  the  logical  link  had  never  for  a  moment 
been  broken. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

THE   PASTOR   HAS   AN   IDEA. 

IT  was  the  week  before  the  November  elections.  Einar 
was  sitting  alone  in  the  office,  reading  a  still  damp  copy 
of  "  The  Banner,"  containing  the  pastor's  latest  onslaught 
on  Norderud.  It  was  entitled  "  Slanderous  and  Lying 
Insinuations  Refuted  and  a  Question  Answered "  ;  was 
divided  into  nine  heads,  each  containing  a  distinct  charge 
against  the  offender,  and  well  fortified  with  Biblical  quo 
tations.  The  quarrel  had  been  running  on  for  several 
weeks,  and  had  now  reached  a  degree  of  acerbity  that,  if 
the  combatants  had  been  men  of  southern  fervor  and  sus 
ceptibility,  would  necessarily  have  led  to  challenges  and 
sanguinary  encounters.  The  northern  nature  is  cooler,  I 
suppose,  and  less  dramatic,  but  it  still  retains  the  memory 
of  an  insult  and  nurses  it  with  a  certain  vindictive  fond 
ness.  Thus  the  insulting  epithets  which  the  pastor  had 
applied  to  his  name  kept  rankling  in  ISTorderud's  bosom, 
and  the  assailant,  who  had,  on  his  part,  little  or  nothing  to 
resent,  felt,  aside  from  personal  considerations,  a  certain 
moral  obligation  to  continue  the  controversy,  because  he 
would  be  doing  God  a  service  if  he  succeeded  in  making 
it  impossible  for  Norderud  to  be  a  candidate.  To  this 
end  he  busied  himself  with  various  ingenious  schemes, 
which  certainly  must  have  appeared  good  in  the  eyes  of 
Providence,  judging  by  the  wholly  unexpected  manner  in 


THE  PASTOR  HAS  AN  IDEA.  225 

which  it  played  into  his  hands.  It  is  fortunate  that  the 
acts  of  Providence  lend  themselves  to  such  a  variety  of  in 
terpretations  ;  at  all  events,  Mr.  Falcon  berg  never  smote 
his  personal  enemies  without  having  the  comfortable  con 
viction  that  the  Almighty  was  on  his  side.  He  was  really 
too  proud  to  be  a  hypocrite — too  profoundly  impressed 
with  his  own  grandeur  to  feel  the  need  of  a  moral  dis 
guise.  He  was  conscious  of  housing  such  an  abundant 
store  of  laudable  motives  within  his  capacious  breast  that 
even  an  act  which,  on  the  face  of  it,  appeared  anything 
but  sublime,  was  sufficiently  sanctioned  by  the  fact  that 
he  was  its  author.  And  this  may,  in  a  measure,  account 
for  the  unblushing  directness  wTith  which,  in  the  interview 
which  I  am  about  to  relate,  he  divulged  his  plans  for 
Norderud's  political  destruction  to  the  man  from  whom 
he  had  presumably  the  least  possible  reason  to  expect 
sympathy  in  such  an  undertaking. 

The  hour  immediately  succeeding  dinner  was  the  time 
when  Hardanger  usually  took  its  afternoon  siesta,  and 
when,  consequently,  calls  were  rare  at  "  The  Citizen  " 
office.  Having  finished  the  reading  of  the  article  upon 
"  Slanderous  and  Lying  Insinuations,"  Einar  had  lighted 
a  cigar,  and  was  leaning  back  in  his  chair,  with  his  legs 
resting  on  the  corner  of  the  mahogany  writing-desk.  He 
was  plotting  a  pungent  rejoinder,  and  was  chuckling  in 
wardly  at  the  thought  of  a  certain  na'ive  fierceness  in  the 
pastor's  effusions,  which  offered  beautiful  opportunities 
for  ridicule  ;  then  suddenly  there  came  a  very  determined 
rap  on  the  door,  and,  to  his  unutterable  surprise,  Einar 
saw  in  the  next  moment  Mr.  Falconberg's  massive  figure 
filling  the  opening.  He  sprang  from  his  seat,  made  a  bow 
of  slightly  exaggerated  politeness,  and  placed  a  chair  for 
his  visitor.  The  pastor  extended  his  hand,  and  his  nephew 
10* 


226  FALCONBERG. 

shook  it,  a  little  frigidly,  perhaps,  and  with  a  look  of  grave, 
wondering  inquiry.  He  felt  sure  that  his  uncle  had  cjome 
on  some  portentous  errand,  and  a  second  glance  at  his 
face  immediately  convinced  him  what  it  was.  With 
a  sort  of  prophetic  dread  he  had  long  anticipated  the 
scene  which  was  now  impending;  but  his  sanguine  trust 
that  the  providential  arrangement  of  things  would  some 
how  be  in  accordance  with  his  own  wishes,  had  inclined 
him  to  defer  it  to  an  indefinite  future.  The  pastor  seated 
himself  with  pompous  deliberateness  ;  for  the  concavity 
of  his  back  and  the  corresponding  convexity  of  his  frontal 
development  restrained  in  his  physical  being  that  rash 
ness  which  not  (infrequently  characterized  his  mental 
movements.  His  eyes  rested  on  Einar's  features  with  a 
look  which  the  latter  had  never  observed  in  them  before  ; 
it  was,  as  far  as  he  could  interpret  it,  a  look  of  interest 
mingled  with  a  half  paternal  severity. 

"My  visit  seems  to  surprise  you,"  began  he,  in  his 
splendid  sonorous  bass.  u  To  be  sure,  our  intercourse  has 
not  been  very  intimate  of  late, — not  what  you  would  ex 
pect  inter  fratres  et  amicos,  eh  ?  " 

Mr.  Falconberg,  who  piqued  himself  on  his  diplomatic 
tact,  thought  this  rather  a  dexterous  hint,  and  by  way  of 
a  smile  displayed  two  magnificent  rows  of  teeth — the 
effect  of  which  was,  however,  anything  but  mirthful. 

"  I  have  long  ago  ceased  to  wonder,  Mr.  Pastor,"  re 
sponded  Einar,  with  a  vexation  which  he  found  it  hard  to 
suppress.  "  Since  you  have,  so  to  speak,  become  the  right 
hand  of  '  The  Banner,'  nothing  can  surprise  me,  not  even 
if  you  were  to  offer  your  left — to  me." 

His  manners  toward  the  pastor  had  never  been  concili 
atory,  and  now  he  gave  himself  the  satisfaction  of  show 
ing  that,  come  what  might,  he  would  have  sufficient  spirit 


THE  PASTOR  HAS  AN  IDEA.  227 

left  to  grapple  with  it.  Mr.  Falconberg,  unprepared  for 
such  a  reception,  jumped  up  as  suddenly  as  the  amplitude 
of  his  person  would  permit,  took  a  few  long  strides  across 
the  floor,  then  turned  abruptly  toward  Einar,  and,  with  a 
glance  at  the  door  leading  into  the  next  room,  said : 

"  Are  we  alone  ? " 

"  We  are." 

"  And  you  will  be  at  leisure  for  the  next  hour  ?  " 

"  Probably;  but  we  may  be  interrupted." 

The  pastor  took  a  step  toward  the  outer  door,  turned 
the  key,  and  put  it  in  his  pocket. 

"  Pardon  me,"  he  said,  while  his  eyes  rested  with  a 
cold,  uncomfortable  glitter  on  his  interlocutor,  "if  I  take 
precautions  against  that  possibility.  "We  must  not  be  in 
terrupted.  The  matter  I  have  come  to  discuss  with  you 
is  one  of  the  utmost  importance." 

If  Einar  had  had  any  doubt  as  to  the  object  of  his  un 
cle's  visit,  that  doubt  would  now  have  been  dispelled. 
And  still,  as  long  as  there  was  the  faintest  possibility 
that  he  might  be  mistaken,  he  had  clung  to  that  possibil 
ity  with  feverish  tenacity.  It  seemed  so  hard  to  believe 
that  God,  who  had  permitted  him  by  patient  toil  to  re 
build  his  fair  name  in  this  new  world,  should  thus  sud 
denly  sweep  away  the  well-earned  fruits  of  his  labor,  and 
turn  him  out  once  more  as  a  wanderer  and  a  vagabond 
upon  the  earth.  In  a  swift  flash  the  terribleness  of  his 
situation  stood  before  him ;  the  certainty  of  dishonor 
staring  him  in  the  face,  and  the  sense  of  the  utter  futility 
of  all  his  endeavors,  rushed  in  upon  him  with  a  wild, 
overwhelming  force ;  and  the  bitterest  of  all — no  longer 
to  meet  Helga's  gaze  with  that  sweet  consciousness  of  fel 
lowship  and  mutual  understanding,  but  to  quail  before  it 
like  a  culprit.  He  had  an  instinctive  conviction  that, 


228  FALCONBERO. 

with  all  its  generosity,  her  nature  was  not  without  a  touch 
of  sternness ;  to  her  no  compromise  with  evil  was  possible  ; 
if  she  were  brought  face  to  face  with  sin,  her  judgment 
would,  therefore,  hardly  be  a  lenient  one.  Her  very  up 
rightness  and  that  singleness  of  purpose  which  character 
ized  all  her  actions  would  make  it  next  to  impossible  to 
explain  to  her  that  intricacy  of  motives  which  had  led 
him  away  from  the  path  of  right. 

With  all  these  bitter  thoughts  whirling  through  his 
head,  Einar  felt  no  impulse  to  remonstrate  with  the  pas 
tor,  but  could  only  quietly  acquiesce  in  his  preparations 
for  the  disclosure. 

"  My  young  friend,"  began  Mr.  Falconberg  in  a  softer 
voice,  as  he  drew  his  chair  up  to  the  desk  where  Einar 
was  sitting,  "  I  should  like  to  preface  what  I  have  to  say 
with  a  few  words  concerning  our  personal  relations  in  the 
past.  Let  me  therefore  tell  you  that  you  have  hitherto, 
probably  without  intention,  persistently  misinterpreted  all 
my  actions,  and  misunderstood  the-  motives  which  prompt 
ed  them.  But  let  me  say  no  more  of  that,  as  I  trust  that 
we  shall  understand  each  other  better  in  the  future. 
From  the  first  moment  I  saw  you,  I  was  greatly  im 
pressed,  not  only  with  your  gentlemanly  and  dignified 
exterior,  but  also  with  your  culture  and  your  varied 
accomplishments.  Since  you  took  charge  of  this  paper, 
your  talents,  although  you  were  constantly  employing 
them  against  my  interests,  have  caused  me  to  wonder. 
This,  I  thought,  is  something  more  than  common  clever 
ness,  something  more  than  the  common  volubility  of  self- 
confident  youth.  It  is,  if  I  may  use  the  word,  closely 
akin  to  genius.  This  led  me  to  the  suspicion  that  you 
were  for  some  reason  or  other  concealing  your  real  name, 
and  that  you  possibly  belonged  to  one  of  the  great  fami- 


EINAK    KNEW   IT   AT   THE   FIRST   GLANCE. 


THE  PASTOR  HAS  AN  IDEA.  229 

lies  of  our  native  land,  in  which  dignity  of  presence  arid 
strength  of  intellect  have  long  been  transmitted  from 
father  to  son,  as  the  surest  heritage." 

These  last  sentences  were  pronounced  with  a  solemn 
emphasis,  which  could  not  have  failed  to  impress  Einar, 
even  if  they  had  not  been  uttered  in  a  voice  which  had 
the  power  to  rouse  the  most  painful  remembrances  from 
that  past  which  he  had  vainly  striven  to  forget.  More 
over,  with  all  their  shrewdness  of  intention,  they  were 
not  without  a  certain  ring  of  sincerity.  For  Mr.  Falcon- 
berg  was  profoundly  skeptical  of  genius  outside  of  his 
own  family.  If  any  of  his  neighbors  who  had  children 
told  him  of  a  precocious  act  or  a  clever  repartee,  he 
always  accepted  it  as  a  vague  challenge,  and  never  failed 
to  relate  an  exactly  parallel  case  about  his  own  or  his 
brother's  children.  It  gave  him  a  good  deal  of  satisfac 
tion,  therefore,  to  know  that  this  young  man,  who  had 
dealt  him  so  many  a  severe  blow,  was  somehow  remotely 
indebted  to  him  or  to  his  own  blood  for  his  very  power 
to  do  him  injury. 

"  You  have  nothing  to  answer,"  continued  he,  in  the 
same  mild,  persuasive  bass.  "  I  may  be  allowed  to  infer, 
then,  that  my  suspicions  were  not  altogether  unfounded." 

Einar  ran  his  lingers  nervously  through  his  hair,  then 
rubbed  his  eyes,  as  with  a  desperate  effort  to  clear  his 
mental  vision. 

"  Perhaps,"  the  pastor  went  on,  "  you  may  recognize 
this  name  and  this  handwriting." 

He  carefully  unfolded  a  letter,  and  laid  it  before  Einar 
on  the  desk.  That  minute,  timid  hand,  with  the  small, 
thin  letters  so  scrupulously  dotted,  how  expressive  of  the 
tender,  subdued  spirit  of  the  writer !  Einar  knew  it  at 
the  first  glance,  and  the  tears  blinded  his  sight. 


230  FALCONBERG. 

"It  is  my  mother's,"  he  whispered,  hoarsely,  as  he 
caught  up  the  paper  and  gazed  at  it  with  dim,  affection 
ate  eyes. 

He  was  well  aware  that  his  uncle  had  nothing  beyond 
his  own  suspicions  whereby  to  prove  his  identity — that 
all  rested  upon  his  own  confession,  and  a  denial  might,  in 
all  likelihood,  save  him  from  disgrace.  But  who  could 
hear  his  mother's  appeal,  and  willfully  deny  her  \ 

Mr.  Falconberg,  too,  found  it  incumbent  upon  him  to 
make  some  show  of  emotion.  He  leaned  forward,  and 
laid  his  arm  on  his  nephew's  shoulder. 

"  I  cannot  but  regret,"  he  said,  "  that  we  should  have 
lived  so  long  in  each  other's  presence  without  knowing 
each  other.  Your  mother  has  but  recently  written  me 
your  history  and  the  cause  of  your  exile.  From  your 
father  I  have  also  had  several  letters,  but  he  has  never  re 
ferred  to  you.  But  if  you  had  applied  to  me  in  the  first 
place  as  a  kinsman,  instead  of  assuming  a  false  mask,  I 
should  have  opened  my  arms  and  my  heart  to  receive  you, 
and  I  might  easily  have  prevented  your  forming  these 
baleful  associations,  which,  I  am  afraid,  you  cannot  break 
without  considerable  difficulty." 

Einar  gave  a  quick  glance  from  his  letter  to  the  pastor's 
face,  as  if  he  did  not  quite  comprehend  his  meaning. 

"  Of  course,"  continued  the  prelate  with  imperturbable 
confidence,  "  I  take  it  for  granted,  that  now,  recognizing 
the  claims  of  blood,  we  shall  no  longer  be  divided  in  our 
aims,  but  join  hands,  as  it  behooves  those  whom  God  has 
placed  in  so  close  a  relation  to  each  other.  I  am  willing 
to  let  the  past  be  past.  I  do  not  condemn  you  for  what 
you  have  done,  for  I  know  how  easy  it  is  to  make  a  mis 
step  and  how  long  and  hard  is  the  path  of  repentance. 
You  may  rely  upon  my  silence,  which  my  own  self  inter- 


THE  PASTOR  HAS  AN  IDEA.  231 

est  would  prompt  no  less  than  my  regard  for  you.  And 
in  return  I  ask  nothing  except  that  you  shall  break  off 
your  connection  with  Norderud  and  abandon  the  editor 
ship  of  this  paper.  I  have  many  influential  friends,  and 
I  will  open  a  new  sphere  of  usefulness  for  you  either  here 
or  elsewhere." 

Einar  looked  up  once  more  with  a  vague  sense  of 
alarm,  and  the  dim  intensity  of  feeling  which  had  been 
laboring  within  him  began  to  crystallize  into  two  definite 
alternatives.  The  choice  was  evidently  still  his  own. 
Should  he  betray  those  who  with  noble  unselfishness 
had  offered  him  their  hands  when  he  stood  on  the  brink 
of  ruin,  strike  a  compromise  with  his  uncle  and  continue 
his  former  course  of  concealment  and  duplicity  ?  Or 
should  he  gather  all  his  strength  for  a  final  great  resolve, 
bid  defiance  to  the  power  which,  though  shrouded  in  soft 
words,  still  hung  threateningly  over  his  head,  and  by  a  fear 
less  avowal  of  his  past  rid  himself  of  the  burden  which 
had  clung  like  a  damp,  sickening  vapor  to  his  soul  ? 
Jt  may  seem  strange  that  this  constant  consciousness  of 
guilt  had  not  produced  a  reckless  apathy,  an  in  discrimi 
nating  bluntness  of  vision,  both  toward  good  and  evil. 
But  it  must  be  remembered  that  that  youthful  elasticity 
of  spirit  which  had  in  the  fatal  moment  made  the  guilt 
possible,  was  in  itself  a  safeguard  against  permanent 
prostration.  During  these  uneasy  years  of  mental  conflict 
he  had  never  ceased  to  yearn  for  his  lost  purity,  and  the 
ever  present  thought  of  her  whom  he  loved  had  intensi 
fied  this  yearning  into  an  active  need,  and  a  burning 
aspiration.  Now  was  the  moment  to  prove  that  he  was 
not  unworthy  of  her  trust,  that  the  love  he  bore  her  was 
a  warm  and  living  love,  giving  him  strength  even  to  re 
nounce  her. 


232  FALCONBERG. 

With  an  impetuous  movement  he  sprang  up  from  his 
seat ;  the  pastor,  unprepared  for  such  a  demonstration, 
pushed  his  chair  back  and  raised  his  arms  in  an  attitude 
of  defense,  as  if  he  were  expecting  a  blow. 

"  Young  man,"  he  cried,  "  consider  well  what  you  do. 
I  know  what  a  hot  temper  runs  in  our  blood.  I  am 
peacefully  inclined.  If  we  separate  as  enemies  to-day  it 
is  yourself  you  will  have  to  blame  for  it." 

"  Enemies  1  enemies  1  "  repeated  Einar,  while  a  deep 
inward  tremor  shook  his  voice.  "  What  can  we  be  but 
enemies  when  you  come  to  insult  me  with  dishonorable 
offers  of  peace  ?  Do  I  not  know  what  dissimulation  and 
concealment  and  dishonor  mean  ?  Ah,  I  have  drunk  too 
deeply  of  that  cup  and  I  know  its  bitterness.  It  shall 
never  touch  my  lips  again,  so  help  me  Grod.  1  do  not 
fear  the  power  I  have  of  my  own  free  will  given  you  over 
me,  and  I  do  not  delude  myself  with  any  vain  hope  that 
you  will  not  use  it  to  the  utmost.  But  I  am  no  child,  and 
still  less  a  coward  who  would  sell  his  convictions  and  his 
friends  for  the  promise  of  personal  safety.  You  say  I 
have  employed  my  talents  against  you  and  your  interests. 
You  are  right.  I  have  done  so,  and  I  shall  continue  to  do 
so  as  long  as  I  have  an  atom  of  strength  left  in  mind  and 
body.  I  should  like  to  say  that  I  cherish  no  resentment 
against  you  personally,  but  I  cannot  say  even  that  with 
sincerity.  The  cause  you  represent  and  the  means  you 
have  taken  in  furthering  it  are  equally  obnoxious  to  me, 
and  if  I  have  persistently  combated  them  it  was  because 
my  conscience  prompted  me  to  do  so,  and  not  because  of 
any  outward  pressure  that  may  have  been  brought  to  bear 
upon  me  as  editor  of  this  paper." 

The  pastor,  to  whom  this  interview  seemed  a  series  of 
the  most  unaccountable  surprises,  needed  now  no  longer  an 


THE  PASTOR  HAS  AN  IDEA.  233 

artificial  stimulus  to  his  emotion.  His  florid  complexion 
had  blanched  and  his  breath  came  and  went  rapidly. 
This  fledgeling  whom  he  had  counted  an  easy  prey,  had 
evidently  a  considerable  sweep  of  wing  and  f  ull-growii 
talons  capable  of  a  fierce  resistance.  And  still,  angry  as 
he  was  at  being  thus  foiled  in  his  most  benevolent  inten 
tions,  he  could  not  repress  a  certain  paternal  admiration 
of  his  nephew's  courage,  the  magnificent  unconsciousness 
of  his  attitude  and  the  aristocratic  elegance  of  his  form. 
Whatever  he  had  done,  there  was  doubtless  the  right  stuff 
in  him ;  no  number  of  pseudonyms  could  disguise  the 
fact  that  he  was  a  Falcon  berg. 

"  My  young  deluded  friend,"  he  said  in  a  tone  of  pity 
ing  superiority,  "  I  will  not  answer  you  as  you  deserve. 
You  still  persist  in  misunderstanding  my  intentions.  It  is 
a  very  erroneous  impression  on  your  part,  when  you  think 
that  I  have  come  here  to  further  some  scheme  of  my  own. 
/  have  no  blot  upon  my  name  and  need  no  assistance  from 
others  to  guard  it  from  dishonor.  It  was  for  your  own 
sake  that  I  sought  you.  You  are  certainly  shrewd 
enough  to  see  that  as  soon  as  your  previous  history  be 
comes  known,  as  inevitably  it  will "  (here  the  pastor  gave 
a  darkly  significant  glance  at  his  interlocutor),  "your  re 
maining  here  in  the  position  which  you  now  occupy  is  an 
impossibility.  I  therefore  came  to  open  to  you  a  safe 
path  of  retreat  before  it  is  too  late.  You  are  well  aware, 
too,  that  I  have  the  power  to  enforce  my  demand,  in  case 
you  do  not  voluntarily  accede  to  it." 

These  words,  spoken  in  a  voice  so  perfectly  gentle,  like 
a  velvet-pawed  touch  hiding  the  sharp  claws  within,  fell 
upon  Einar's  ear  with  strange  oppressive  foreboding.  A 
strong  revulsion  of  feeling  toward  his  uncle  took  posses 
sion  of  him;  he  rebelled  against  Providence  for  having 


234  FALCONBERO. 

placed  this  cold  unscrupulous  man  in  so  near  a  relation  to 
him,  and  having  given  the  key  of  his  fate  into  his  hands. 
But  since  the  decisive  moment  now  must  come,  he  could 
easily  anticipate  him ;  he  would  consent  to  no  compro 
mise,  which  must  add  to  the  load  which  had  so  long  crip 
pled  his  soul,  but  by  an  immediate  avowal  of  his  past 
thwart  the  triumph  of  his  oppressor. 

"  I  am  far  from  misunderstanding  your  intentions,  Mr. 
Falconberg,"  he  said  with  an  enforced  coolness,  in  sharp 
contrast  to  his  former  vehemence.  "On  the  contrary,  I 
believe  you  capable  of  using  every  possible  means  for  the 
accomplishment  of  your  end.  But  I  too  have  chosen  my 
line  of  conduct  after  mature  deliberation ;  and  threats  are 
powerless  to  change  it.  You  know  Mr.  Norderud  has  be 
friended  me  ever  since  my  arrival  here,  and  I  am  under 
deep  obligations  to  him.  I  could  not,  therefore,  prove  un 
faithful  to  him  in  the  present  crisis,  even  if  by  so  doing  I 
could  secure  temporary  safety  for  myself.  And  with  this 
understanding  let  us  part.  When  the  inevitable  shall 
come  to  pass,  I  may  no  longer  be  of  any  use  to  him,  but  I 
shall  at  least  be  guiltless  of  treachery." 

The  pastor's  long-suppressed  anger  had  now  completely 
overbalanced  his  lurking  generosity.  lie  had  come  ex 
pecting  to  administer  wholesome  rebuke  and  consolation 
to  a  penitent  transgressor,  and  instead  of  that  he  had 
himself  been  put  to  shame  by  the  superior  morality  of 
this  high -principled  miscreant.  The  very  loyalty  of  his 
nephew  to  his  benefactor,  and  the  fineness  of  his  instincts, 
made  him  hate  him  the  more.  For  a  moment  he  strug 
gled  between  the  impulse  to  resort  to  muscular  argu 
ments  and  the  equally  impolitic  desire  to  drown  him 
under  a  torrent  of  abusive  rhetoric.  But  as  neither  was 
quite  accordant  with  his  clerical  dignity,  he  wheeled 


THE  PASTOR  HAS  AN  IDEA.  235 

round  on  his  heel,  burst  into  a  scornful  laugh,  took  the 
key  from  his  pocket  and  unlocked  the  door. 

"And  this  is  your  last  word?"  he  cried,  giving  Einar 
a  wrathful  glance  over  his  shoulder. 

"My  last  word." 

"Then  the  blame  is  your  own.  I  have  given  you 
warning." 

With  a  mighty  slam  the  door  closed  behind  him  and 
Einar  was  alone. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

AN   INTERVIEW. 

THERE  was  one  consideration  which  Einar  had  neglect 
ed  to  take  into  account  when  he  brought  the  pastor's 
wrath  down  upon  his  head,  and  this  neglect  was  now  caus 
ing  him  considerable  disquietude.  He  had  regarded  it 
as  an  easy  matter  (that  is,  in  point  of  practicability)  to 
anticipate  the  pastor  in  his  intended  disclosures,  but  he 
had  forgotten  that  such  disclosures  would  inevitably  af 
fect  the  prospects  of  Norderud's  election,  and  probably 
include  him  in  the  martyrdom  which  he  had  intended  for 
himself  alone.  He  well  knew  with  what  eagerness  op 
posing  parties  seize  upon  the  merest  whisper  that  may 
throw  discredit  upon  the  name  of  a  rival  candidate,  and  he 
suffered  acutely  at  the  thought  that  Norderud's  friendship 
for  him  might  thus  be  made  the  cause  of  his  political 
ruin.  He  had  strong  grounds  for  believing  that  Mr.  Fal- 
conberg  would  not  babble  his  precious  secret  into  the  ear 
of  chance  visitors,  but  would  bring  it  out  with  many  poly 
syllabic  headings  through  the  columns  of  "  The  Banner." 
Its  explosive  effect  would  then  be  well-nigh  incalculable. 
It  would  be  telegraphed  to  the  Associated  Press,  and 
would  be  trumpeted  abroad  the  next  morning  by  every 
newspaper  in  the  country.  "  The  Banner  "  for  that  week, 
however,  had  already  appeared,  and  by  the  time  the  next 


AN  INTER  VIE  W.  237 

issue  left  the  press,  the  election  would  already  have  taken 
place.  Not  from  cowardice,  then,  but  because,  as  he 
thought,  his  duty  toward  Norderud  demanded  it,  he  re 
solved  to  defer  his  confession.  "  The  Citizen,"  which 
now  published  a  semi-weekly  besides  its  weekly  edition, 
would  appear  on  Tuesday,  the  day  of  the  elections,  and  by 
delaying  the  publication  until  sun-down  he  could  manage 
to  avert  from  Norderud's  head  the  threatened  disaster. 

It  was  with  much  heart-ache  and  after  a  long  and  pas 
sionate  struggle  that  he  arrived  at  this  resolution,  and  as 
it  was  built  purely  upon  hypotheses  which,  however,  for 
the  moment  carried  considerable  plausibility,  the  issue 
might  still  in  the  end  be  contrary  to  his  expectation. 

The  next  morning,  which  was  a  Sunday,  Einar  rose, 
after  a  brief,  uneasy  slumber,  to  meet  the  calamity  which 
had  now  irrevocably  overtaken  him.  It  was  a  cold,  dreary 
day.  A  sharp  wind  whistled  through  the  maples  in  the 
garden,  now  divested  of  their  autumnal  splendor,  and  the 
dry  leaves  were  whirling  in  a  fantastic  dance  before  the 
windows.  The  sun  was  just  sending  a  momentary  gleam 
through  the  wide  expanse  of  cloud  which  darkened  the 
eastern  sky,  and  by  its  cold  light  he  saw  his  future  open 
ing  before  him  in  long  barren  vistas  ;  no  hope  to  brighten 
it,  no  aim  beyond  its  endless  monotony — only  a  vast, 
desert-like  expanse  of  dreariness  and  desolation.  "  To 
live  merely  for  the  sake  of  living,  is  the  source  of  all  vul 
garity,"  says  a  German  philosopher.  But  to  a  sensitive 
soul  who  sees  this  prospect  forced  upon  him,  it  is  the 
source  of  the  most  exquisite  refinement  of  suffering.  It 
requires  a  heroism  of  no  ordinary  kind  to  face  unquail- 
ingly  the  vision  of  inevitable  disgrace,  when  the  means  of 
escape  is  still  possibly  in  one's  own  hands.  But  to  Einar 
the  question  was  now  irrevocably  closed  ;  in  the  state  of 


238  FALCONBERO. 

physical  weakness  which  possessed  him,  he  shrank  from 
re-opening  the  struggle,  even  though  his  victory  seemed 
bitter  beyond  his  power  to  bear.  And  he,  whose  position 
had  compelled  him  to  assume  the  attitude  of  a  mentor 
toward  his  fellow-citizens — ah,  that  the  earth  might  hide 
him,  so  that  he  might  be  spared  the  humiliation  of  meet 
ing  their  glances  again ! 

With  a  feeling  of  chilliness  and  a  strange  sense  of 
numbness  in  his  limbs  he  descended  into  the  study.  The 
doctor,  who  usually  took  his  ease  on  Sunday  mornings, 
was  heard  marching  about  on  the  floor  overhead,  probably 
in  the  process  of  making  his  toilet.  He  was  singing  an 
air  from  a  German  opera  (his  voice,  by  the  way,  was  not 
well  adapted  for  musical  purposes)  in  an  easy,  careless 
way,  now  rising  into  the  wildest  fortixsimos,  then  running 
through  the  most  indescribable  piano  movements  and 
occasionally  descending  into  the  sepulchral  regions  of 
bass.  Einar  remained  standing  at  the  door  listening  with 
a  dreamy  shudder  to  his  friend's  musical  diversions;  there 
was  to  him  something  positively  terrible  about  it.  With 
a  sudden  resolution  he  tore  a  leaf  from  his  pocket-book, 
wrote  a  few  words  upon  it  and  attached  it  to  the  top  of 
the  cigar-case,  where  the  doctor  would  be  sure  to  find  it; 
he  then  snatched  some  crackers  from  the  dining-room 
table  and  hastened  down  to  the  office,  where  he  threw 
himself  on  the  sofa,  having  first  locked  the  door  on  the 
inside.  Here  he  could  at  least  abandon  himself  without 
restraint  to  his  misery  without  having  to  meet  Van  Flint's 
sympathetic  inquiries  regarding  his  health  (naturally  sug 
gested  by  his  haggard  appearance)  with  hypocritical 
smiles  and  evasions.  It  was  no  unusual  thing  for  him  to 
take  a  Sunday  tramp  out  to  Lumber  Creek,  and  the  doc 
tor,  judging  from  his  note,  would  probably  conclude  that 


AN  INTER  VIE  W.  239 

he  was  spending  the  day  with  Knut  or  Thorarin  Norde- 
rud. 

It  was  not  until  late  in  the  afternoon,  when  the  exhaus 
tion  which  always  follows  in  the  wake  of  violent  emotions 
had  somehow  blunted  the  edge  of  his  sufferings,  that 
Einar  was  seen  emerging  from  the  Norderud  block  and 
sauntering  with  reckless,  uncertain  steps,  contrasting 
strangely  with  his  usual  elegant  erectness,  down  the  leaf- 
strewn  sidewalks  of  Main  street.  He  felt  no  longer  any 
pain,  except  a  dull  aching  in  his  limbs  and  a  sense  of 
heaviness  in  his  eyes.  But,  as  the  cold  breeze  kept  blow 
ing  in  his  face,  his  thoughts  began  once  more  to  assume  a 
more  definite  shape,  and  he  became  possessed  of  a  desire 
to  see  Helga — a  desire  which  gradually  grew  into  an  un 
controllable  yearning.  Pie  might,  perhaps,  gather  cour 
age  to  unburden  his  mind  to  her ;  and  how  much  better 
that  she  should  know  the  worst  from  his  own  lips,  rather 
than  from  those  of  his  enemies.  He  had  hardly  anything 
to  hope,  except  perhaps  a  gentler  judgment,  a  milder  con 
demnation.  By  the  time  he  reached  Mrs.  Raven's  dwell 
ing  in  Elm  street,  this  resolution  to  make  Helga  the 
sharer  of  his  fatal  secret  so  filled  his  mind  as  almost  to 
exclude  the  vision  of  the  desolate  autumnal  landscape 
around  him.  And  his  ear,  too,  was  dimmed  to  outward 
sounds,  and  the  clear  young  voice  which  at  that  moment 
mingled  with  the  fitful  whistlings  of  the  wind  fell  with  a 
remote  indistinctness  upon  his  sense.  But,  as  he  put  his 
hand  on  the  gate  to  open  it,  he  became  suddenly  aware  of 
a  tall,  stately  woman  standing  on  the  inside  and  pulling 
it  in  the  opposite  direction.  Einar  met  her  gaze  with  vague 
bewilderment,  and  stammered  something  about  his  pleas 
ure  at  seeing  her. 

"  You  seem  thoroughly  preoccupied,  Mr.  Finnson,"  said 


240  FALCONBERG. 

Helga,  in  a  merry  voice.  "  I  suppose  it  is  the  elections 
which  have  been  absorbing  your  thoughts  of  late,  to  the 
exclusion  of  your  friends.  Bat,"  she  added,  suddenly 
changing  into  a  graver  tone,  "  you  look  wretched.  You 
are  certainly  not  well.  Wont  you  go  in  and  keep  mother 
company  ?  I  am  going  to  see  Ingrid,  who  is  ill,  and  I 
shall  probably  spend  the  night  with  her." 

"No,  I  thank  you,"  murmured  he,  while  the  hope  which 
had  for  a  moment  lighted  his  face  suddenly  died  out  of  it. 
"  If  you  will  permit  me,  I  would  rather  accompany  you." 

"  Certainly.     Your  company  is  always  welcome." 

They  moved  out  into  the  street,  while  their  footsteps 
rustled  through  the  dry  leaves  which  covered  the  side 
walks. 

"  You  do  not  look  as  happy  as  I  had  expected,"  began 
Helga,  after  a  pause.  "  Perhaps  you  do  not  feel  so  san 
guine  about  the  elections  as  most  of  our  countrymen  do. 
Mr.  Norderud's  chances,  I  hear,  are  excellent." 

"  Yes,  I  suppose  they  are.  I  wish  I  could  be  happy  on 
his  account." 

"  Has  anything  happened  ? "  she  asked,  with  a  quick 
glance  of  apprehension. 

"Yes." 

"  If  you  would  only  allow  me  to  share  your  unhappi- 
ness " 

With  a  strong  impulse  of  sympathy,  the  exclamation 
had  rushed  to  her  lips  before  she  had  had  time  to  consider 
it.  It  had  hardly  occurred  to  her  that  this  unaccountable 
dejection  could  have  any  relation  to  her,  and,  with  her 
usual  unsuspecting  frankness,  she  had  perhaps  urged  him 
on  to  the  declaration  which,  for  some  indefinable  reason, 
she  feared  as  much  as  she  desired  it.  For  a  strong,  life- 
absorbing  passion  has,  with  all  its  sweetness,  still  a  remote 


AN  INTERVIEW. 

element  of  terror  in  it.  She  unconsciously  hastened  her 
steps,  setting  her  brow  fiercely  against  the  cold  blast  which 
whirled  about  her  ears,  hushing  the  loud  beatings  of  her 
heart.  In  her  blind  haste  she  came  very  near  running 
against  a  small,  fierce-eyed  man  in  a  semi-clerical  attire, 
who  had  planted  himself  in  the  middle  of  the  walk  with 
the  evident  purpose  of  intercepting  her. 

"  Madam,"  he  said,  in  a  shrill,  piercing  voice,  u  are  you 
a  Christian « " 

"  Yes,"  answered   she   gravely,  meeting  his  searching 
look  without  fear  or  surprise.     "  I  hope  I  am." 

"  And  the  young  gentleman  there — is  he  a  Christian  ? " 
"  He  will  answer  for  himself.     Ask  him." 
Einar  was  too  impatient  of  this  most  inopportune  inter 
ruption  to  have  anything  but  resentment  for  the  intruder. 
But  as  he  saw  that  Helga  treated  him  with  respect,  he 
made  an  effort  to  conceal  his  vexation  and  to  answer  his 
questions  with  becoming  dignity. 

In  spite  of  the  boasted  religious  liberty  in  Hardanger, 
the  latitude  allowed  in  matters  of  faith  was  very  limited. 
A  man  might  perhaps  claim  the  right  to  think  very  much 
as  he  pleased,  if  he  only  kept  his  heresies  to  himself.  For 
the  Methodists,  being  the  most  powerful  religious  body  in 
the  town,  kept  a  vigilant  supervision  over  public  opinion. 
Ton  might  be  a  Lutheran,  or  a  Presbyterian,  or  a  Baptist, 
and  remain  unmolested ;  but  if  you  were  nothing  at  all, 
you  were  the  legitimate  prey  of  all  these  sects,  and  invited 
the  proselyting  ardor  of  every  new  minister.  And  if  you 
resisted  all  attempts  at  conversion,  you  might,  in  times  of 
exceptional  religious  excitement,  be  presented  with  the 
alternative  between  Methodism  and  tar  and  feathers. 
Roman  Catholics  stood  low  in  the  social  scale,  Catholicism 
being  an  equivalent  for  Irish  brogue,  an  odor  of  garlic,  and 
li 


242  FALCONBERG. 

nnevangelical  manners.  Among  the  other  churches  (with 
the  exception  of  the  Anglican,  which  was  but  slimly  rep 
resented),  it  was  perfect  etiquette  to  confront  a  stranger 
with  questions  concerning  the  state  of  his  soul,  whether 
he  loved  Jesus,  enjoyed  prayer,  and  the  like. 

The  small  man,  whose  manners  were  every  moment 
becoming  more  aggressive,  was  not  to  be  dismissed  with 
evasive  answers  or  polite  hints  to  take  his  leave.  He 
clung  to  the  young  girl  with  the  tenacity  of  a  leech,  cross- 
examining  both  her  and  her  companion  on  the  most  vital 
topics  pertaining  to  this  life  and  the  life  to  come,  and 
accompanying  them  to  the  very  gate  of  the  Norderud 
mansion,  thus  cutting  off  Einar's  last  hope  of  coming  to 
an  understanding  with  Helga  before  the  long-threatened 
event  should  perhaps  separate  them  forever.  The  col- 
porter's  faith,  although  strongly  tinged  with  fanaticism, 
was  evidently  sincere  and  earnest,  and  Einar  owned  with 
shame  that  the  quiet  dignity  of  Helga's  demeanor  toward 
him  implied  a  just  rebuke  to  his  own  impatience.  Alas, 
the  opportunity  now  gone  might  never  return  !  There 
seemed  to  be  some  dark  fatality  constantly  at  play  in  his 
life,  frustrating  all  his  noblest  intentions  when  they  were 
on  the  very  verge  of  fulfillment. 

"  And  you  will  come  to  see  me  very  soon,  wont  you  ? " 
she  said  cordially,  reaching  him  her  hand  as  they  parted 
at  the  gate.  "You  know  I  should  be  so  happy  if  you 
would  allow  me  to  be  of  any  service  to  you.  It  grieves 
me  more  than  I  can  tell  to  see  you  so  sad — you,  who 
seemed  born  only  for  happiness." 

There  was  to  him  a  terrible  irony  in  these  last  words. 
He  born  for  happiness — he,  who  had  been  pursued  by 
grievous  mischances  from  the  very  cradle !  Reviewing 
with  many  bitter  reflections  the  events  of  these  latter 


AN  INTER  VIE  W.  243 

years,  he  hastened  homeward,  and  found  the  doctor  the 
central  figure  in  a  gray  world  of  smoke,  lighted  in  its 
equatorial  region  by  a  green-shaded  luminary,  but  other 
wise  enveloped  in  primeval  gloom. 

"  Ecce"  exclaimed  the  doctor,  as  he  heard  the  familiar 
footstep  on  the  floor,  for  his  own  near-sightedness  and  the 
dense  tobacco-smoke  prevented  him  from  gaining  a  clear 
impression  of  the  face.  "  Thou  whom  1  had  chosen  as 
the  comfort  of  my  declining  ye&rs—pramdium  et  dulce 
deem  meum,  as  it  were — how  hast  thou  returned  the  love 
I  bore  thee  ?  Scouring  the  country,  from  the  early  dawn 
to  the  dewy  eve,  for  the  sake  of  one  or  two  paltry  votes  ; 
with  a  grimly  facetious  smile  stretching  out  thy  aristo 
cratic  hand — trans  pondera,  as  Horace  has  it,  or  worse — 
across  the  dunghill ;  alas,  thou  son  of  the  Muses,  I  pity 
thee !  And  how  fare  our  bucolic  friends  at  Lumber 
Creek?" 

"  I  have  not  been  at  Lumber  Creek,"  answered  Einar, 
perhaps  a  little  ill-humoredly,  for  the  doctor's  .  mock  so 
lemnity  was  very  annoying.  "  I  have  spent  the  day  at 
the  office." 

"  Exaggerated  zeal,  my  boy.  Mere  youthful  hot-head- 
edness.  You  will  break  down  under  it,  get  softening  of 
the  brain  and  die,  as  sure  as  you  live.  Pardon  the  para 
dox,  i  am  rather  in  a  declamatory  mood  to-night.  I 
have  missed  you  more  than  1  like  to  confess.  For  want 
of  anything  better  to  do,  I  have  been  jotting  down  some 
notes  for  an  article,  which  I  am  burning  to  communicate 
to  you.  I  don't  know  what  to  call  it  yet,  but  it  is  to  be 
an  onslaught  on  that  literary  vice  which  the  newspapers 
call  word-painting.  As  for  really  fine  descriptive  epi 
thets,  we  have  never  quite  reached  the  standard  of  the 
Greeks.  The  avrjp^fjLov  ye\aa-fjia  of  JEschylus,  from  which 


24-1  FALCONBERG. 

Byron  no  doubt  borrowed  his  '  myriad-dimpled  deep,'  is 
still  unsurpassed.  Shakspere's  ;  multitudinous  sea  incar 
nadine  '  is  certainly  very  fine  ;  but  it  hasn't  to  me  quite 
the  ring  of  the  Greek.  But  our  modern  poets  and  poet 
asters,  in  their  mania  for  melodious  words,  have  quite  for 
gotten  that  the  value  of  a  word  depends  entirely  upon  the 
degree  of  completeness  with  which  it  expresses  the  idea 
or  the  object  to  which  it  owes  its  origin.  Words  that 
thrust  themselves  upon  your  attention  by  their  obtrusive 
fineness  are  really  nothing  but  literary  monstrosities." 

When  Yan  Flint  was  well  launched  upon  a  monologue 
of  this  order,  the  alluring  sequence  of  his  thoughts  ab 
sorbed  all  his  attention,  and  he  was  not  apt  to  exercise 
much  control  over  his  audience.  Einar  could  therefore 
hide  in  the  twilight  of  the  sofa,  sometimes  throwing  in  an 
occasional  "  Yes,"  "  No,"  "  To  be  sure,"  and  the  like, 
when  a  rising  inflection  on  the  speaker's  part  indicated  an 
interrogatory  pause.  Preoccupied  as  he  was  with  his  own 
misfortunes,  he  could  not  suppress  a  smile  at  the  thought 
that,  of  all  men,  the  doctor,  who  gloried  in  his  rich  voca 
bulary,  and  whose  phrases  certainly  at  times  were  u  obtru 
sively  fine,"  should  write  an  article  denouncing  his  fellow- 
sinners. 


CHAPTEE  XIX. 

MAKES    A    SENSATION. 

THE  next  morning — it  was  the  day  preceding  the  elec 
tion — the  wind  had  subsided  and  the  still  maples  lifted 
their  bare  crowns  against  the  clear,  cloudless  sky.  And 
yet,  as  Einar  trod  his  wonted  way  to  the  office,  through 
the  long,  bleak  avenues,  there  was,  as  he  thought,  a  strange 
quiver  of  excitement  in  the  air.  It  might  be  due  to  the 
impending  election,  which  is  notably  the  most  momentous 
event  of  the  year  in  the  drowsy  annals  of  a  country  com 
munity;  but  somehow  this  explanation  hardly  seemed 
satisfactory.  As  he  approached  the  public  square  the  con 
viction  grew  intenser  with  him  that  something  unusual 
had  happened.  At  the  opposite  corner,  outside  the  office 
of  u  The  Banner,"  a  crowd  of  people  had  gathered, — 
mostly  loafers,  and  laborers  in  corduroy  and  fustian, — and 
now  and  then  a  voice,  rising  in  angry  tones  above  the  rest, 
was  flung  toward  him,  followed  by  a  chorus  of  jeering, 
hooting  and  laughter.  A  large  canvas  bulletin  depended 
from  the  windows  of  "The  Banner"  office,  covering 
nearly  half  the  front  of  the  building.  He  only  read  the 
words,  "  Extra  Edition  of  '  The  Banner ' — A  Villain  Un 
masked."  He  needed  no  further  assurance  ;  the  crisis 
had  come ;  his  conscientious  devices  had  been  in  vain ; 
he  was  ruined. 

That   aggressive   courage  which  rushes  headlong  into 


246  FALCONBERG. 

danger  had  never  been  his.  He  shrank  from  contact  with 
rude,  violent  men,  and  no  amount  of  excitement  or  passion 
could  conquer  this  natural  impulse  with  him  to  seek  safety 
from  physical  indignities.  But,  for  all  that,  he  was  any 
thing  but  a  coward.  The  pastor  would  probably  in  an 
excess  of  wrath,  have  thought  nothing  of  receiving,  and 
still  less  of  giving,  a  blow  ;  but  in  a  question  of  right  and 
wrong  (that  is,  where  the  profit  was  on  the  side  of  Mam 
mon)  he  had  at  times  consented  to  a  compromise  which 
the  tenderer  conscience  of  his  nephew  would  have  spurned. 
And  when  in  spite  of  this,  the  former  co.tild  point  to  a 
stainless  public  record,  while  the  latter  writhed  with  the 
secret  sense  of  guilt,  it  was,  no  doubt,  owing  to  the  fact 
that  in  the  critical  moment  of  his  life,  this  native  dread  of 
violence  had  asserted  itself,  at  the  expense  of  his  nobler 
impulses. 

As  he  stood  there  at  the  corner  of  the  square,  pale  and 
trembling,  gazing  with  dimmed  eyes  at  the  fateful  bulle 
tin,  he  would  certainly  have  aroused  compassion  in  the 
stoniest  breast.  "With  a  violent  effort  he  tore  himself 
away,  and  started  with  rapid  steps  toward  the  Nordernd 
block.  The  earth  billowed  under  his  feet,  and  the  blood 
rushed  with  a  deafening,  surging  motion  in  his  ears.  He 
was  fortunate  enough  to  reach  the  office  without  being  ob 
served  by  any  but  a  few  apathetic  shop-keepers,  who  were 
unfastening  the  shutters  from  their  front  windows.  He 
had  hardly  had  time  to  fling  himself  down  in  his  chair 
when  the  messenger  entered  and  placed  a  damp  half-sheet 
of  "  The  Banner  "  on  the  desk  before  him.  He  clutched 
it  between  his  trembling  fingers  and  began  to  read  the 
headings,  which  were  printed  with  a  variety  of  big  type, 
and  covered  nearly  the  whole  of  the  first  column.  They 
ran  as  follows:  "Startling  Revelations — A  Villain  Un- 


"  THE  BANNER"  MAKES  A  SENSATION. 

masked — The  Republican  Candidate  for  the  Senate 
Strongly  Compromised — Birds  of  a  Feather  Flock  To 
gether — A  Marvelous  Story  of  Crime  and  Successful  Con 
cealment — The  Swindler  Rises  to  Honor  and  Dignity — 
He  Disguises  Himself  Under  a  False  Name — Vengeance 
Overtakes  Him  at  Last — The  Scandinavian  Populace  En 
raged — A  Hint  to  Norwegian  Voters." 

lie  could  read  no  more.  His  head  swam.  He  hid  his 
face  in  his  hands,  and  strove  hard  to  collect  his  thoughts. 
His  lips  were  dry  and  feverish,  and  a  cold  shiver  shook  his 
frame.  With  an  effort  he  roused  himself,  wrung  his  hands 
until  his  fingers  cracked  in  their  joints,  and  rose  to  drink  a 
glass  of  water.  As  he  staggered  into  the  next  room,  where 
a  small  mirror  hung  over  the  wash-basin,  he  saw  a  ghastly 
reflection  of  himself,  pale,  haggard,  with  bloodshot  eyes 
and  a  strange  strained  expression  about  the  mouth.  With 
horror  he  shrank  back  from  the  phantom-like  image — it 
was  as  if  he  had  seen  himself  dead.  A  long-forgotten 
dream  of  his  childhood  suddenly  rushed  through  his  brain. 
He  had  entered  a  large,  empty  room,  at  the  further  end 
of  which  stood  a  black  coffin,  where  a  corpse  lay  with 
shrouded  face.  An  irresistible  impulse  had  compelled  him 
to  lift  the  shroud,  and  he  had  seen  his  own  face,  with  blue 
lips  and  dead,  sunken  eyes.  The  nameless  dread  which 
had  then  overmastered  him  now  returned  with  renewed 
•vividness.  He  sank  down  upon  the  sofa,  and  thought  and 
felt  no  more. 

Presently  a  great  noise  in  the  next  room  pierced 
through  his  torpid  sense.  He  strove  to  rise,  but  his  limbs 
seemed  feeliiigless  and  benumbed.  Some  one  grasped 
him  hard  by  the  arm,  and  opening  his  eyes  he  saw  Nor- 
derud  and  Van  Flint  bending  down  over  him,  both  with 

O  / 

the  traces  of  unusual  excitement  in  their  features. 


248  FALCONBERQ. 

"  Great  heavens !  "  cried  the  doctor.  "  He  is  mortally 
ill.  He  has  worked  himself  to  death,  and  now  this  dam 
nable  affair  in  the  bargain.  It  is  enough  to  kill  any  man. 
I  told  him  so  yesterday.  I  warned  him  to  take  care  of 
himself." 

"  Wait  one  moment,"  responded  Norderud,  while  the 
doctor  seated  himself  on  the  sofa,  and  raised  Einar  in  his 
arms.  "  I  believe  there  is  some  brandy  in  this  closet.  It 
may  only  be  a  fainting-fit,  and  a  stimulant  may  restore 
him." 

The  stimulant  was  administered,  and  in  half  an  hour 
Einar  was  once  more  at  the  editorial  desk. 

"  This  is  a  devilish  trick  they  have  played  us,"  said 
Norderud,  pounding  the  floor  with  his  cane  to  give  vent 
to  his  vexation.  "  We  must  have  an  extra  of  the  paper 
out  before  sundown,  or  the  chances  of  the  election  are 
hopelessly  ruined.  Since  Finnson  is  rather  low,  we  shall 
have  to  depend  upon  you,  doctor,  as  usual.  It  isn't  the 
first  time  you  have  helped  us  out  of  a  bad  scrape.  But  I 
hope  you  are  strong  enough,"  he  added,  turning  to  Einar, 
"  to  write  a  brief  refutation,  over  your  own  name,  of  that 
damnable  campaign  lie." 

There  was  a  pause,  which  seemed  the  more  intense  for 
the  excited  expectancy  with  which  both  men  watched  the 
struggle  which  for  a  moment  distorted  Einar's  counte 
nance. 

"  I  cannot." 

He  almost  thrust  the  words  out,  as  if  they  cost  him  a 
terrible  physical  exertion. 

u  You  can't ! "  cried  Norderud,  springing  up  from  his 
chair. 

u  No,  I  cannot." 

"  And  why  can't  you  ?  " 


"  THE  BANNER"  MAKES  A  SENSATION.  249 

"  Because  it  is  all  true,"  came  in  a  low,  painful  whisper. 

Nbrderud  stood  horror-stricken.  His  large,  ruddy  face 
blanched,  and  his  lips  moved  nervously,  but  brought  forth 
no  sound.  The  doctor,  having  rapidly  recovered  himself 
from  the  first  shock  of  surprise,  was  disposed  to  believe 
that  they  were  all  the  victims  of  some  cruel  misunder 
standing,  and  his  features  assumed  an  expression  of  good- 
natured  bewilderment. 

"  Mr.  Norderud,"  he  said,  laying  his  hand  pacifyingly 
upon  the  latter's  arm,  "  do  not  act  rashly.  It  will  all  be 
cleared  up,  if  you  will  only  give  him  time.  Remember 
he  is  ill,  and  hardly  knows  what  he  is  saying." 

The  farmer  tore  himself  loose  from  the  doctor's  grasp, 
and  darted  a  savage  glance  at  the  stooping  figure  before 
him. 

"  If  you  have  anything  to  say,"  he  said,  hoarsely,  "  then 
say  it." 

"  I  have  nothing  to  say,"  responded  Einar,  calmly.  "  1 
have  told  you  the  truth." 

Now  that  all  was  lost,  what  had  he  to  fear  ?  He  began 
to  feel  his  bodily  weakness  as  something  unworthy  of 
him,  and  with  a  strong  effort  of  will  succeeded  in  rousing 
himself. 

"  And  you  came  here,  then,"  Norderud  went  on,  with 
growing  excitement,  "  with  the  deliberate  purpose  of  im 
posing  upon  me,  to  drag  me  down  into  the  dirt " 

"  My  dear  Mr.  Norderud,"  interposed  the  peaceful  Van 
Flint,  "  do  me  the  favor  to  leave  this  affair  to  me.  I  will 
talk  it  over  with  Finnson,  and  tell  you  the  result.  I  know 
I  can  appeal  to  your  sense  of  justice;  angry  abuse  will 
never  bring  the  truth  to  light,  and  you  will  regret  to-mor 
row  what  your  indignation  may  prompt  you  to  say  to 
day." 

11* 


250  FALCONBERO. 

The  farmer  paused  in  his  vehement  speech,  and  stood 
for  a  moment  in  silent  conflict  with  himself.  Then,  as  if 
utterly  foiled,  he  threw  himself  down  on  the  sofa,  thrust 
both  his  hands  deeply  into  his  pockets  and  said : 

"  Well,  I  suppose  I  am  to  be  counted  out  of  this  busi 
ness.  Talk  all  you  have  a  mind  to,  and  be  sure  you  han 
dle  him  with  gloves  on,  as  he  has  doubtless  deserved." 

The  doctor,  interpreting  his  acquiescence  by  his  manner 
rather  than  by  his  words,  drew  Einar  gently  into  the  next 
room  and  closed  the  door. 

"  My  dear  boy,"  he  said,  affectionately,  as  soon  as  they 
were  seated  opposite  each  other,  "there  is  evidently  some 
thing  you  have  been  concealing  from  me  all  this  while. 
I  am  sorry  you  have  not  trusted  me  enough  to  allow  me 
to  bear  the  burden  which  you  have  so  long  borne  alone. 
I  have  often  noticed  that  you  shrank  from  speaking  of 
y'our  life  at  home,  and  I  have  guessed,  too,  that  there  was 
some  painful  memory  in  your  past  which  you  were  striv 
ing  to  hush.  I  should  not  like  to  appear  importunate, 
and  therefore  I  have  hitherto  forborne  questioning  you. 
But  now,  since  there  can  no  longer  be  any  cause  for  se 
crecy,  I  must  ask  you  to  speak  frankly  and  without  re 
serve  to  me.  I  have  not  read  '  The  Banner,1  not  even  the 
bulletin  board,  which  I  purposely  avoided  seeing,  because 
I  wished  to  hear  your  own  account  of  it,  before  I  listened 
to  the  exaggerated  and  perverted  versions  of  those  who 
have  reason  to  fear  you." 

Deeply  touched  at  this  friendly  generosity,  Einar  began 
to  speak,  but  his  emotion  often  came  near  choking  his 
voice.  After  all  the  din  and  excitement  of  these  last 
days,  with  their  restlessness,  mortification,  and  keen  re 
proach,  it  was  sweet  to  escape  into  the  serene  sunshine  of 
Van  Flint's  affectionate,  uncritical  eyes.  He  could  speak 


"  THE  BANNER"  MAKES  A  SENSATION.          251 

now  fearlessly  of  that  past  which  had  cast  its  oppressive 
gloom  upon  his  present  life,  crippling  his  energies  and 
blighting  his  fairest  hope.  And  he  experienced  a  sense 
of  deliverance,  almost  akin  to  happiness,  in  being  now 
able  to  rid  himself  of  a  life-long  burden.  • 

He  spoke  without  restraint  of  the  circumstances  which 
had  led  to  the  fatal  deed,  dwelling  with  retrospective  ten 
derness  upon  his  mother's  timid  indulgence  of  her  favor 
ite  child,  but  touching  only  in  the  lightest  possible  man 
ner  upon  his  father's  imperious  dictation  regarding  his 
course  of  study  and  his  future  calling.  His  evident  disin 
clination  to  shield  himself,  however,  enabled  the  doctor  to 
draw  his  inferences  regarding  things  which  were  treated 
as  casual  or  passed  over  in  silence.  There  was  something 
so  warm  and  cheering  in  the  sympathy  of  this  tender 
hearted  man  that  Einar  could  not  but  wonder  that  he  had 
so  long  resisted  his  desire  to  confide  in  him. 

An  hour  after  noon  the  door  was  unlocked,  and  as  the 
square  was  almost  deserted,  they  ventured  forth  into  the 
open  air.  Fearing  to  attract  attention,  they  chose  an  un 
frequented  street,  and  reached  home  just  as  Miss  Yan 
Flint's  dinner-bell  was  frightening  the  robins  away  from 
the  withered  morning-glory  vines  around  the  front  piazza. 

Einar's  plans  for  the  future  were  as  yet  undetermined, 
but  his  friend  was  inclined  to  think  that  the  most  pru 
dent  course  would  be  to  leave  Hardanger,  at  least  tempo 
rarily,  until  the  popular  excitement  consequent  upon  the 
election  should  have  abated.  In  the  meanwhile  he  would 
consult  Norderud,  and  bring  back  answer  before  night. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

HELGA    MAKES    A    DISCOVERY. 

IT  was  the  day  for  Helga's  charitable  society  to  meet. 
She  had  been  busy  since  the  early  morning  cutting  pieces 
of  flannel  and  cotton  cloth,  so  that  everything  might  be  in 
order  when  Inonrid  and  Miss  Ramsdale  should  corne.  In 

c» 

her  half-rural  retirement,  she  knew  little  of  what  went  on 
about  her,  and  having  seen  no  visitors  that  day,  she  was 
as  yet  ignorant  of  the  event  which  agitated  the  rest  of 
the  community.  As  the  old  Norwegian  clock  on  the  stairs 
struck  three,  Ingrid  appeared  at  the  door,  looking  a  little 
paler  than  usual,  and  with  eyes  which  showed  marks  of 
recent  weeping. 

"  What  is  it,  dear  ? "  asked  Helga,  to  whom  such  symp 
toms  in  her  friend  were  in  no  way  surprising.  Some  little 
thing  had  gone  wrong,  probably,  and  she  should  have  to 
play  her  accustomed  part  as  comforter. 

"  Isn't  it  dreadful  \  "  exclaimed  Ingrid,  dropping  down 
into  a  chair,  and  making  no  signs  to  remove  her  hat  and 
cloak. 

"  What  is  dreadful,  dear  ?  " 
"  About  Finnson.     Haven't  you  heard  ? " 
"  Finnson  !  "  cried  Helga,  with  sudden  alarm.     "  Has 
anything  happened  to  him  \  " 

She  well  remembered  Einar's  deep  dejection  at  their 


HELOA  MAKES  A  DISCOVERY.  253 

last  meeting,  and  feared  that  he  had  laid  violent  hands  on 
himself. 

"  Speak,  Ingrid  ! "  she  gasped.     "  What  is  it  ? " 

"  What  is  it  ?  "  repeated  Ingrid,  in  a  tone  of  mingled 
indignation  and  sorrow.  "  Why,  it  is  this,  that  he  is  an 
escaped  forger.  His  name  isn't  Finnson  at  all.  It  is  a 
false  name.  He  is  a  regular  runaway  criminal.  Oh,  dear  ! 
What  will  people  think  of  me — I  who  have  been  so  much 
with  him.  I  never,  never  shall  forgive  him ! "  Here  she 
broke  down  utterly,  venting  her  small,  selfish  grief  in 
vehement  sobs,  and  hiding  her  face  in  her  tiny,  gloved 
hands. 

But  Helga  had  no  sympathy  to  offer.  She  stood  rigidly 
aloof,  clutching  with  a  convulsive  grasp  the  chair  against 
which  she  was  leaning.  Where  everything  was  dark  and 
bewildering,  it  seemed  a  relief  to  lay  hold  of  some  palpa 
ble  thing  to  fix  the  wandering  sense.  A  hundred  half- 
formed  impulses  dashed  through  her  head,  but  being  based 
upon  the  belief  in  his  guilt,  were  swiftly  rejected  as  un 
worthy  of  her  and  of  him.  Whatever  might  be  the 
proofs  against  him,  her  heart  utterly  refused  to  believe 
him  guilty.  Presently  Miss  Ramsdale  entered,  gay,  alert, 
and  eager  as  ever,  but  readily  recognizing  the  source  of 
Helga's  and  Ingrid's  distress,  she  charitably  forbore  to 
introduce  the  topic  which  she  was  nevertheless  itching  to 
discuss. 

"  Oh,  dear ! "  said  Ingrid,  rising  from  her  stooping 
position  with  a  petulant  pout  on  her  round,  baby  face. 
"  There  now  !  I  have  spoiled  my  new  gloves  by  crying  on 
them.  And  I  have  broken  the  feather  on  my  hat,  too," 
she  added,  carefully  removing  the  latter  article  with  an  air 
which  betrayed  an  intense  consciousness  of  her  back  hair. 

"  Never  mind,  dear,"  said  Ida  Ramsdale,  eager  to  mani- 


254  FALCON  BERG. 

fest  her  sympathy.  "  You  know  I  have  a  knack  for  cur 
ing  decrepit  chapeaux.  That  feather  can  easily  be  am 
putated,  and  I  will  fix  it  for  you  in  a  minute.  It  will 
hardly  be  an  inch  shorter  than  it  was  before." 

And  so  the  gossip  ran  on  pleasantly  between  these  two 
airy-minded  creatures,  while  they  fitted  shoulder-pieces, 
each  using  the  other  as  a  lay  figure,  stitching  them  together 
with  pins,  which  you  expected  them  every  minute  to  swal 
low.  For  some  instinctive  reason,  which  they  both  felt  to 
be  imperative,  they  seldom  appealed  directly  to  Helga's 
verdict,  but  with  consummate  tact  still  guarded  against 
the  appearance  of  excluding  her  from  their  conversation. 
And  Ilelga,  feeling  the  futility  of  any  effort  to  appear  un 
concerned,  sat  dumbly  plying  her  needle,  still  crying  out 
mentally  against  the  social  tyranny  which  compelled  her 
to  feign  an  interest  in  petty  things  while  the  supreme 
yearnings  of  her  soul  were  crushed  into  rebellious  silence. 
She  seemed  to  see  Einar's  face  lifted  to  her  in  mute,  ap 
pealing  misery,  and  her  heart  leaped  out  toward  him  with 
impetuous  pity,  longing  to  assure  him  in  word  and  deed 
that  even  though  all  the  world  condemned  him,  she  still 
believed  him  to  have  been  upright  and  faithful.  The 
three  hours  until  supper  seemed  almost  unending,  and  by 
the  time  the  clock  announced  the  welcome  hour,  she  had 
wrought  herself  up  into  a  state  of  nervous  restlessness 
which  threatened  to  break  the  bonds  of  conventional  pro 
priety.  She  managed  to  restrain  herself,  however,  until 
the  two  girls  had  taken  their  leave,  and  even  went  through 
a  feint  of  keeping  her  mother  company  at  the  tea-table. 
The  old  lady,  who  was  not  remarkable  for  acuteness  of 
vision,  and,  moreover,  accepted  her  daughter's  strangeness 
as  a  long-established  fact,  no  longer  worth  puzzling  about, 
chatted  incessantly  about  the  folly  of  troubling  one's  self 


HELGA  MAKES  A  DISCOVERY.  255 

about  other  people's  wants  as  long  as  one  had  a  roof  over 
one's  own  head,  and  clothes  to  cover  one's  back.  Helga 
well  knew  that  these  remarks  were  always  in  order  after 
the  adjournment  of  the  sewing  society,  or  when  she  re 
turned  from  a  charitable  errand,  and  she  was  now  even 
less  inclined  than  ever  to  rehearse  her  oft-repeated  answers. 
Mrs.  Raven  was,  in  a  general  way,  greatly  impressed  with 
her  daughter's  excellence,  and  although  assuming  an  un 
sympathetic  attitude  toward  her  charities,  nevertheless  was 
fond  of  gossiping  admiringly  about  them  to  neighbors  and 
visitors.  She  stood,  moreover,  vaguely  in  awe  of  her,  as 
weaker  persons  are  apt  to  do  toward  those  of  superior 
moral  strength,  and  if  she  had  any  adverse  criticism  to 
offer,  she  never  advanced  it  directly,  but  rather  discoursed 
reprovingly  about  the  follies  of  people  in  general.  Even 
if  their  mutual  relation  had  not  in  part  outwardly  defined 
their  conduct  toward  each  other,  they  had  at  least  lived 
long  enough  together  to  avoid  clashing  ;  but  the  daughter's 
habitual  independence  of  action  was  probably  more  than 
half  due  to  the  fact  that  she  had  never  found  sympathy 
at  home. 

When  the  brief  meal  was  at  an  end,  Helga  rose  with 
quiet  resolution,  put  on  her  hat  and  shawl,  and  moved  to 
ward  the  door. 

"  I  shall  be  gone  for  an  hour  or  two.  mother,"  said  she ; 
"  and  if  I  am  not  back  by  nine,  you  needn't  sit  up  for 
me." 

"  Very  well,  child,"  responded  Mrs.  Raven  whiningly. 
"  You  know  best  what  you  want.  But  if  your  poor  brother 
had  been  alive,  I  shouldn't  have  to  spend  these  long  even 
ings  alone." 

Mrs.  Raven  might  perhaps  have  forgotten  that  the 
lamented  Gustav  had  never  cheapened  the  value  of  his 


256  FALCONBERG. 

company  by  dispensing  it  too  lavishly  ;  but  the  halo  which 
now  surrounded  his  memory  had  caused  this  and  many 
other  failings  to  pass  into  the  diametrically  opposite  vir 
tues. 

Helga  gave  her  mother  a  regretful  glance,  then  with  an 
impulsive  movement  put  her  arms  round  her  neck  and 
kissed  her  wrinkled  forehead.  As  she  stepped  out  into 
the  gathering  dusk,  the  confused  doubt  and  anguish  of 
pain  which  had  tortured  her  during  the  afternoon  began 
slowly  to  give  way  to  a  serene  trust  in  that  Providence 
which  she  felt  sure  watched  over  his  fate  as  well  as  hers, 
and  would  safely  guide  their  feet  out  of  that  dark  laby 
rinth  in  which  their  error  and  fatal  blindness  had  so  cruelly 
entangled  them.  She  could  not  think  of  her  own  lot  apart 
from  his,  and  it  was  with  a  feeling  akin  to  exultation  that 
she  rehearsed  to  herself  Ingrid's  unconscious  confession, 
which  had  removed  her  last  misgiving  from  her  mind, 
giving  her  now  the  sole  right  to  share  his  misery,  and  if 
he  had  erred  (if  so,  she  doubted  not  it  was  in  a  generous 
way),  to  lead  him  back  to  the  path  of  righteousness.  In 
the  emptiness  of  her  existence  she  had  long  yearned  for 
some  consecrating  mission, — some  noble  sacrifice,  to  lift 
her  life  out  of  that  narrow  round  of  small  needs  and  carea 
which  drags  the  lives  of  most  women  so  hopelessly  earth 
ward.  She  knew  now  that  her  prayer  had  been  heard,  and 
with  this  grand  aim  before  her,  she  felt  strong  enough  to 
defy  the  heartless  judgment  of  the  world,  being  conscious 
even  of  a  fierce  satisfaction  in  the  anticipation  of  its  con 
demnation. 

Doctor  Yan  Flint,  who,  by  reason  of  an  unusual  accu 
mulation  of  annoyances,  was  in  an  agitated  frame  of 
mind,  was  wandering  about  restlessly  amid  the  scenes  of 
his  Arctic  geography,  when  he  saw  a  well-known  form 


HELOA  MAKES  A  DISCOVERY.  257 

rising  out  of  the  dusk  and  rapidly  approaching  his  front 
piazza.  The  fact  that  Einar  had  absented  himself  in  an 
unaccountable  fashion  during  the  afternoon,  and  had  not 
yet  returned,  had  given  him  great  uneasiness.  The  ser 
vant-maid  had  stated  that  she  had  seen  him  marching  up 
across  the  fields  toward  the  glen,  which  under  ordinary 
circumstances  would  have  been  natural  enough,  but  in  the 
light  of  the  events  of  the  morning  was  not  quite  re-assur 
ing.  The  appearance  of  Ilelga  upon  the  scene  was  there 
fore  a  most  welcome  relief ;  if  for  no  other  reason,  because 
her  presumable  anxiety  about  Einar  would  offer  him  an 
excuse  for  pouring  out  the  tale  of  his  woes.  He  was,  in 
deed,  too  preoccupied  with  his  forebodings  to  reflect  that 
there  was  anything  extraordinary  in  the  fact  of  her  visit 
ing  him  alone  at  this  hour  of  the  day. 

"Ah,  Miss  Helga,"  he  cried,  as  soon  as  she  came  into 
view.  "You  are  a  veritable  God-send,  now  as  ever.  How 
could  you  divine  that,  of  all  persons  in  the  world,  you 
were  the  one  I  especially  wanted  to  see  ?  " 

"  I  came  to  ask  you  about  Mr.  Finnson,"  said  Helga 
simply.  "  Is  he  here  ?  " 

"No;  that  is  the  very  deuc3  of  it,"  answered  he,  ruth 
lessly  decapitating  an  aster  which  lifted  its  purple  head 
above  the  grass  border.  "  I  wish  to  heaven  he  was !  " 

"And  do  you  know  where  he  is?"  asked  the  girl  hur 
riedly,  and  with  an  undisguised  anxiety  which  went  to 
the  doctor's  heart. 

"  No,  not  exactly.  He  was  seen  this  afternoon  taking 
the  road  up  toward  the  glen.  To  tell  the  truth,  I  feel 
greatly  inclined  to  go  in  search  of  him." 

"  Oh,  let  me  go  with  you ! "  she  cried,  with  a  sudden 
helpless  energy.  She  had  striven  hard  to  keep  her  voice 
steady;  but  there  was  still  an  alarming  quiver  in  it. 


258  FALCONBERO. 

Her  former  dread  again  came  over  her,  and  her  confident 
strength  was  rapidly  ebbing  away. 

"With  all  Tny  heart,"  responded  Van  Flint  cordially. 
"  But  I  warn  yon  the  road  is  rough.  Will  you  take  my 
arm?" 

She  grasped  his  proffered  arm  with  an  alacrity  which 
he  was  not  slow  to  interpret ;  and  without  another  word 
they  walked  toward  the  back  gate,  which  opened  upon  a 
broad  stretch  of  field  rising  steeply  toward  the  rocky 
elevation  on  the  west. 

The  doctor  had  always  cherished  a  most  cordial  regard 
for  Ilelga,  and  had  even  at  times  persuaded  himself  that 
he  was  mildly  in  love  with  her.  But,  as  he  had  never 
perceived  in  her  any  symptoms  which  his  modest  self-de 
preciation  had  permitted  him  to  interpret  as  a  response 
to  his  feelings,  he  had  of  late  come  to  look  upon  his  ad 
miration  of  her  as  an  amiable  eccentricity,  which,  after 
all,  was  insufficient  to  found  any  serious  relation  upon. 
Moreover,  he  had  persuaded  himself  that  matrimony 
would  present  a  formidable  obstacle  to  the  accomplish 
ment  of  his  one  great  aim  in  life — the  completion  of  his 
"  History  of  Icelandic  Literature " ;  and  he  had  never 
been  able  to  make  up  his  mind  that  even  his  affection  for 
Helga  was  strong  enough  to  reconcile  him  to  such  an  in 
terference.  And  I  must  do  this  generous  scholar  the  jus 
tice  to  add  that  at  this  moment,  in  spite  of  his  dangerous 
proximity  to  the  object  of  his  adoration,  he  was  too  sin 
cerely  alarmed  about  the  fate  of  his  friend  to  indulge  in 
regretful  reflections  as  to  what  might  have  been. 

So  they  trudged  bravely  on,  each  too  intensely  absorbed 
in  their  common  dread  to  find  relief  in  its  expression. 
For  a  word  once  spoken  becomes,  as  it  were,  an  indepen 
dent  existence — almost  a  reality,  which,  instead  of  easing 


HELGA  MAKES  A  DISCOVERT.  259 

the  mind  anxious  for  self -refutation,  may  rather  deepen 
its  dread. 

The  slim  crescent  of  the  moon  floated  along  the  eastern 
horizon,  pouring  forth  no  profusion  of  light,  but  still  re 
motely  pervading  the  atmosphere  with,  its  softly  luminous 
presence.  The  larger  planets  shone  with  a  misty  halo, 
while  the  unseen  myriads  of  the  heavens  were  but  indis 
tinctly  defined  through  the  gauzy  woof  of  cloud  which 
radiated  from  the  zenith  downward  like  a  vast  serial  cob 
web.  The  fields,  already  nipped  by  the  autumn  frost, 
showed  a  long  bleak  stretch  of  neutral  brown,  shading, 
where  a  rising  hillock  caught  the  hazy  moon-rays,  into  a 
ghostly,  bloodless  green. 

After  a  steady  march  of  half  an  hour,  Helga  and  the 
doctor  entered  a  broad  ravine,  which  had  always  been  one 
of  Einar's  favorite  haunts.  The  still,  bleak  walls  of  rock 
rose  in  moonlit,  misty  silence  on  either  hand,  and  some 
where  beyond  those  dark  recesses  among  the  pines  there 
was  a  sound  of  falling  waters — not  the  strong,  deafening 
boom  of  mighty  liquid  masses,  but  a  subdued,  rhythmic 
rush,  like  that  of  the  wind  through  dense,  leafy  crowns. 
Down  in  the  bottom  of  the  gorge  the  water  broke  into  a 
pleasant,  contented  gurgle;  but,  suddenly  checking  its 
chatty  mood,  expanded  into  a  dark  pool,  which  cheated 
the  eye  with  the  suggestion  of  immeasurable  depth.  Here 
the  beaten  path  came  to  an  abrupt  end,  pointing  by  half 
a  dozen  vaguely-defined  trails  into  dusky  jungles  and 
copses.  The  wanderers  paused  and  looked  inquiringly  at 
each  other,  doubtful  whether  to  penetrate  any  further. 

"  Suppose  I  shout  ?  "  suggested  the  doctor. 

"  Wait  a  moment,"  demanded  Helga,  in  a  whisper. 
"  Isn't  that  a  man  sitting  on  that  stone  on  the  other  side  o£ 
the  pool  ? " 


260  FALCONBERG. 

"  To  be  sure,"  rejoined  Van  Flint  joyously  ;  then  with 
a  lusty  shout :  "  Hallo,  old  boy  !  What  the  deuce  are  you 
sitting  and  moping  over  in  that  stone-heap  for?  What 
startling  propensities  you  are  daily  developing  !  But  if 
you  wish  to  preserve  your  incognito,  that  white  hat  of 
yours  is  rather  an  injudicious  article  to  wear." 

There  was  a  slight  noise  of  rolling  stones  and  creaking 
branches ;  then  a  voice  came  faintly  across  the  water. 

"  Is  it  you,  Doctor  ?  " 

"  Who  else  should  it  be  ?  Who  but  me,  I  should  like 
to  know,  would  start  out  on  a  wild-goose  chase  for  you, 
at  this  time  of  night,  with  the  danger  of  breaking  every 
bone  in  his  body  '(  No,  sir,  don't  delude  yourself ;  such 
devotion  abides  nowhere  but  in  me." 

The  doctor  could  afford  to  be  jovial  now ;  the  sudden 
removal  of  the  strain  upon  its  mind  made  it  rebound 
with  excessive  energy  into  his  habitual  humor.  He 
turned  a  radiant  face  upon  Ilelga,  and  gave  her  arm  a  lit 
tle  private  pressure,  implying  a  delicious  sense  of  mutual 
understanding.  She,  however,  was  still  quivering  with 
agitation,  and  could  make  but  a  feeble  response. 

"I  am  sorry  if  you  were  anxious  about  me,"  the  voice 
beyond  the  water  continued.  "  I  was  hardly  worth  fret 
ting  about." 

"  That  is  a  self-evident  truth,  my  boy.  Nevertheless, 
some  people  are  so  queerly  constructed  that  they  fre 
quently  do  what  is  hardly  worth  the  doing.  But  if  you 
wouldn't  mind  the  trouble,  I  should  venture  to  suggest 
that  you  assume  a  more  tangible  existence,  as  soon  as 
practicable.  In  my  present  mood  voices  from  space  and 
that  sort  of  thing  do  not  impress  me  pleasantly." 

"  I  am  coming.  It  is  darker  than  I  supposed.  I  shall 
be  with  you  in  a  minute." 


EELGA  MAKES  A  DISCOVERT.  26 L 

The  stones  rattled  down  over  the  slope  once  more  and 
the  leafless  tops  of  the  underbrush  swayed  in  the  air. 
Helga  clung  with  a  desperate  grasp  to  the  doctor's  arm, 
and  clenched  her  teeth  tightly  as  if  by  some  physical  ex 
ertion  to  master  the  tremor  which  was  irresistibly  stealing 
over  her.  There  he  stood,  tall  and  beautiful  as  ever. 
On  seeing  her  he  fell  back  with  a  subdued  exclamation, 
then  again  came  forward  and  with  a  look  of  fervid  gratitude 
seized  the  hand  which  was  hanging  listlessly  at  her  side 
and  held  it  long  within  his.  She  would  fain  have  said 
something  to  explain  the  cause  of  her  coming,  but  she  felt 
sure  that  she  would  betray  an  emotion  which  in  the  doc 
tor's  presence  would  be  embarrassing. 

"  Aha,  you  precious  somnambulist,"  broke  forth  Van 
Flint,  who  for  some  reason  thought  it  incumbent  upon 
him  to  appear  merrier  than  he  felt.  "  With  what  feat  of 
knight-errantry  are  you  going  to  surprise  us  the  next  time  ? 
It  would  be  desirable  if  you  would  give  us  notice  before 
hand,  so  that  we  may  know  what  to  expect.  You  seem 
surprised  yourself,  it  appears.  And  well  you  may.  Here 
Miss  Helga  and  I  have  been  risking  our  valuable  lives 
merely  for  the  sake  of  ascertaining  whether  we  might  still 
count  you  among  the  number  of  the  living.  With  me,  I 
confess,  it  was  merely  a  statistical  interest,  as  I  shall  have 
to  report  the  condition  of  my  household  to  the  census- 
taker  within  a  few  days.  As  for  Miss  Helga,  she  will 
have  to  answer  for  herself." 

"  I  am  very,  very  sorry,"  murmured  Einar,  sadly. 

"  But  since  I  have  trudged  this  mile  and  a  half  at  this 
time  of  night,"  the  irrepressible  doctor  went  on,  "  I  want 
to  repay  myself  by  catching  a  glimpse  of  the  falls  by 
moonlight.  I  have  heard  people  say  that  the  effect  is 
something  quite  unique.  Miss  Helga,  I  fear,  is  too  tired 


262  FALCONBERO. 

to  follow,  and  if  she  has  no  objection  I  will  leave  her  here 
in  your  charge  till  I  return." 

And  with  this  hollow  device  the  doctor  started  off  at  a 
cheerful  trot  and  vanished  in  the  mist  of  the  inner  ravine. 
Ilelga  and  Einar  stood  for  a  while  gazing  at  each  other 
in  amazed  silence. 

"  It  was  very  kind  of  you  to  come,"  he  began  at  last 
with  a  slight  embarrassment  in  his  manner.  I  have  been 
thinking  of  you  all  day,  but  I  never  dared  to  hope  to  see 
you  again." 

"  I  heard  that  they  were  unkind  to  you,"  she  answered 
(strive  as  she  might  she  could  not  raise  her  voice  above  a 
whisper).  "  I  could  not  bear  to  think  that  you  were  un 
happy.  I  know  they  have  been  saying  horrible  things 
about  you  and  that  you  must  feel  it  very  keenly.  But  I 
wish  to  tell  you  that  whatever  they  say  about  you,  you  will 
still  be  the  same  to  me, — 1 — I  shall  always  believe  in 
you." 

There  was  a  painful  pause,  during  which  the  tumult  of 
her  heart  became  almost  unbearable. 

u  But  suppose  I  was  not  worthy  of  your  trust  ?  "  came 
at  last  in  a  hoarse  undertone. 

"  Oh,  I  will  not  believe  it.  I  cannot  believe  it,"  she 
cried,  as  if  determined  to  refute  him  in  spite  of  himself. 
"  I  could  not  have  trusted  in  you  so  long  if  I  had  not  felt 
that  you  were  good  and  true.  Why  do  you  say  such 
dreadful  things  to  me  ?  It  is  not  kind  of  you  to  treat  me 
so." 

She  sank  down  upon  the  damp  moss  and  hid  her  face 
in  her  hands. 

"  Ah,  Mr.  Finnson,"  she  continued,  struggling  to 
smother  the  rising  sobs.  "  There  has  been  so  little  in  my 
life  worth  believing  in,  and  I  cannot  afford  to  lose  my 


HEL OA  MAKES  A  DISCO  VER  Y.  263 

faith  in  yon.  But  since  you  have  yourself  raised  the 
doubt,  which  was  so  far  from  me  a  moment  ago,  you 
must  now1  yourself  dispel  it.  Tell  me  that  your  life  has  been 
pure  and  good,  and  that  there  is  not  a  word  of  truth  in 
what  they  have  told  me.  You  know  1  believe  you.  Only 
say  it, — it  is  so  easy  for  you  to  say  it." 

"  O  Helga,"  he  broke  forth,  falling  upon  his  knees  be 
fore  her,  "  I  would  give  my  life  to  say  it.  But  I  cannot." 

"  Oh,  how  cruel !  "  she  murmured,  while  the  sobs  shook 
her  stooping  form. 

There  was  something  deeply  moving  in  the  sight  of 
this  calm,  strong  Helga  weeping,  and  weeping  for  his  sake. 
It  stirred  the  deepest  fibers  within  him, — moved  him  with 
sorrow,  self-pity,  remorse  and  still  with  an  uncontrollable 
exultation  in  the  assurance  that  she  loved  him.  He  could 
have  thrown  himself  down  at  her  feet  and  cried  out 
against  himself  for  having  wrecked  this  one  fair  hope, 
this  one  inspiring  purpose  which  still  had  made  his  life 
worth  having.  But  now  that  the  hope  was  irrevocably 
gone,  now  that  she  must  despise  him,  and  a  life-long  sep 
aration  was  inevitable,  the  impulse  to  justify  himself  in 
her  sight  rose  above  all  other  needs,  and  with  renewed 
fervor  his  voice  rose  out  of  the  moonlit  dusk. 

"  It  is  this  and  this  only,  Helga,  which  has  so  long  kept 
me  away  from  you.  I  have  suffered  for  your  sake — ah, 
God  only  knows  how  I  have  suffered  !  I  would  not  thrust 
my  soiled  life  into  yours  which  was  pure.  And  still  what 
I  did,  though  it  may  appear  black  now,  was  not  the  cun 
ning,  deliberate  fraud  that  it  has  been  represented  to  be, 
but  a  hasty,  reckless  choosing  between  two  impending 
evils.  I  was  weak — momentarily  weak,  and  chose  the 
greater  evil  instead  of  the  lesser.  I  came  here  hoping  by 
patient  toil  and  honesty  to  blot  out  the  stain  upon  my 


264  FALCONBERG. 

name,  and  a  hundred  times  1  resolved  to  reveal  my  past 
to  yon,  but  once  you  checked  me  yourself,  and  since  then 
some  fatal  mischance  always  frustrated  my  purpose  when 
ever  it  grew  strong  within  me.  And  now,  since  we  are 
once  for  all  separated,  I  may  at  least  speak  to  you  without 
restraint,  and  you  will  not  think  me  ungenerous  for  con 
fessing  the  love  which  has  been  my  hope  and  my  life  ever 
since  the  first  moment  I  saw  you  in  the  church.  It  can 
bring  me  nothing  now,  except  a  deeper  misery,  a  deeper 
consciousness  of  what  I  have  lost.  O  Helga,  if  you  had 
but  known  how  I  have  loved  you  !  Now,  give  me  only 
your  hand  in  parting.  I  must  leave  you  here.  The  doc 
tor  will  be  back  in  a  moment,  and  I  will  go  to  meet  him. 
And  you  will — not  forgive  me,  no,  I  do  not  ask  that — but 
you  will  not  judge  me  as  others  do,  not  judge  me 
harshly  ?  » 

She  had  risen  and  now  stood  tall  and  erect  before  him ; 
the  tears  still  glittered  in  her  eyes,  but  he  read  no  con 
demnation  in  them,  but  a  tender  affectionate  appeal. 

"  I  do  not  judge  you,  Einar,"  she  said,  in  a  passionate 
whisper  as  he  seized  both  her  hands.  "  I  love  you." 

They  stood  long  hand  in  hand,  gazing  at  each  other 
with  tear-dimmed  radiance ;  then  he  clasped  her  tenderly, 
reverently  in  his  arms  and  their  lips  met  tremblingly  in 
the  twilight.  Thus  they  stood  folded  close  in  the  first 
happy  embrace,  I  know  not  how  long. 

"  O  Helga,  darling,"  he  cried  suddenly,  throwing  his 
head  back  and  clasping  her  face  between  his  palms,  "  it 
is  too  terrible !  To  think  that  we  must  part  after  this  !  " 

"  No,  Einar,"  she  answered  in  a  clear  voice  of  decision. 
"  We  must  not  part.  Why  should  you  flee  from  your 
post  ?  I  too  have  strong  shoulders,  and  if  our  life  will 
be  hard  at  first  we  can  bear  its  burden  together.  You 


HELGA  MAKES  A  DISCOVERY.  265 

have  not  told  me  all  yet ;  but  my  heart  whispers  to  me 
what  you  have  left  untold.  Better  to  face  obloquy  and 
live  it  down  than  to  flee  from  it." 

"  Yes,  be  it  so,"  he  cried  ardently.  "  I  have  strength 
enough  now  to  meet  whatever  may  be  in  store  for  me." 

A  loud  cough  with  a  palpably  artificial  quality  in  it 
was  heard,  and  presently  Yan  Flint  was  seen  breaking  his 
way  through  the  underbrush  with  much  panting  and 
needless  commotion.  He  held  his  hat  and  handkerchief 
in  one  hand  and  his  spectacles  in  the  other  ;  the  perspira 
tion  was  pouring  down  from  his  bald  scalp,  drops  of  water 
gleamed  in  his  bushy  mustache  and  his  coat  had  a  broad 
rent  across  the  shoulders. 

"  Ah,"  he  sighed,  fetching  his  breath  from  the  bottom 
of  his  lungs  and  wiping  his  forehead.  "  The  falls  were 
deuced  fine — really  a  sight  for  gods,  I  assure  you.  You 
don't  know  what  you  have  missed,  and  it  is  well  for  you 
that  you  never  will  know.  Really,"  he  added  with  in 
creased  fervor,  as  an  incredulous  smile  stole  over  Helga's 
countenance.  "  I  am  in  dead  earnest.  It  was  a  glorious 
sight." 

The  doctor  continued  with  a  sort  of  vindictive  energy, 
which  after  all  was  not  without  a  small  grain  of  private 
amusement,  to  describe  in  detail  the  beauty  of  the  water 
fall,  determined  to  establish  the  fact  that  his  expedition 
had  been  a  success,  whatever  they  might  choose  to  think 
about  it. 

An  hour  later  they  were  all  snugly  seated  in  the  tobacco- 
scented  Icelandic  study  (though  out  of  consideration  for 
Ilelga  the  smoking  was  temporarily  suspended)  and  the 
host  heard  with  much  heart-felt  and  heartily  expressed 
satisfaction  of  the  little  drama  which  had  been  enacted 
during  his  ramble  in  quest  of  romantic  sensations.  He. 


266  FALCONBERG. 

of  course,  feigned  unbounded  surprise,  which  he  felt  to  be 
consistent  with  the  demands  of  etiquette,  this  latter  insti 
tution  having,  as  he  thought,  been  framed  with  a  punctil 
ious  regard  for  the  foibles  of  the  feminine  character. 
When  the  lovers  had  departed,  however,  and  an  exqui 
sitely  flavored  Havana  had  attuned  his  mind  to  reverie, 
he  could  not  help  feeling  slightly  vexed  at  his  own  gen 
erosity;  no  tragic  attitudes,  no  romantic  regret,  not  to 
speak  of  despair.  He  had  evidently  not  the  stuff  for  a 
lover  in  him,  not  even  for  an  unhappy  one. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

VOX   POPULI. 

THE  elections  passed  off  without  dramatic  incidents. 
The  enthusiastic  torch-light  processions  of  the  past  week 
witli  their  glaring  transparencies  and  promiscuous  cheer 
ing  from  a  Babyloriic  confusion  of  throats  seemed  a  thing 
of  remote  antiquity,  and  the  impartial  rain  descended  in 
a  cold  drizzling  spray  alike  upon  righteous  Republicans 
and  unrighteous  Democrats.  There  was  an  occasional  en- 
Lvening  of  public  sentiment  whenever  fresh  bulletins 
were  displayed  at "  The  Citizen  "  or  "  The  Banner  "  office, 
the  contradictory  statements  of  which,  if  they  served  no 
other  purpose,  at  least  stimulated  the  betting  which  was 
understood  to  be  very  animated  in  the  bar-rooms  of  the 
Franklin  and  the  Hancock  hotels.  There  were  also  later 
in  the  afternoon  the  usual  rumors  of  Democratic  corrup 
tion,  of  which,  however,  nothing  more  definite  could  be 
ascertained  than  that  the  chairman  of  the  state  committee 
had  telegraphed  somewhere  that  five  hundred  votes  "  would 
settle  it,"  and  that  an  obscure  Irishman  had  called  at  JSTor- 
derud's  house  to  inform  him  that  he  had  sixteen  friends 
who  entertained  conscientious  doubts  regarding  the  merits 
of  the  contesting  candidates.  There  was  the  usual  num 
ber  of  partisans  of  Utopian  schemes  who  hung  about  the 
polls,  button-holing  unsophisticated  voters  and  trying  to 
enlist  their  sympathies  for  impossible  candidates  and  still 


268  FALCONBERO. 

more  impossible  reforms.  There  were  the  ardent  neo 
phyte  voter  with  ready-made  convictions  who  deemed  the 
exercise  of  his  civic  rights  a  great  and  glorious  privilege, 

c?  o  o  IT  c5    ? 

the  pessimistic  citizen  who  believed  that  the  country  was 
going  to  the  dogs — voted  a  mixed  ticket  and  held  it  to  be 
a  cheap  privilege  to  choose  between  two  evils ;  the  apa 
thetic  voter  who  would  have  stayed  at  home  and  had 
yielded  only  to  the  importunities  of  partisans  and  the 
offer  of  a  free  ride,  and  at  last  the  political  manager  and 
wire-puller  who  besieged  the  polls  from  dawn  till  sunset, 
thrusting  his  ticket  into  your  hand  and  overwhelming  you 
with  a  deluge  of  arguments  if  you  appeared  for  a  moment 
to  be  doubtful  in  your  choice. 

The  doctor  and  Nbiderud  spent  the  entire  day  at  the 
office,  sending  and  receiving  frequent  dispatches  to  and 
from  their  agent  at  the  Republican  head-quarters,  mostly, 
as  it  appeared,  of  a  highly  encouraging  nature.  In  spite 
of  this,  however,  they  were  both  far  from  merry  as  they 
walked  home  together  after  the  closing  of  the  polls  ;  and 
-Norderud  could  not  refrain  from  expressing  his  serious 
misgivings.  He  had  somehow  a  kind  of  feeling  that  it 
was  going  all  wrong,  he  said,  but  even  the  worst  might 
be  good  for  something,  and  after  all  there  was  no  use  in 
whining.  And  the  next  morning  when  the  result  became 
generally  known  these  gloomy  forebodings  were  veriiied. 
Although  victorious  in  the  town  the  Republican  ticket 
had  been  beaten  in  the  county  by  a  paltry  majority  of 
two  hundred  and  sixty.  "  The  Democratic  Banner  "  had 
its  reward. 

This  fresh  disappointment  mixed  a  strong  dose  of  myrrh 
in  Einar's  cup  of  gladness.  lie  was  sitting  in  Mrs.  Ra 
ven's  quaint,  rose-scented  parlor  when  the  vexatious  news 
was  announced  to  him.  The  old  lady,  who  felt  herself 


VOX  POPUL1.  260 

powerless  against  Helga's  placid  determination,  had  turned 
to  him  as  her  last  refuge,  overwhelming  him  with  bless 
ings,  threats  and  tearful  entreaties.  But  when  all  appeals 
to  his  emotions  had  proved  futile  she  suddenly  bethought 
herself  of  a  stratagem,  and  plunged  once  more  into  the 
debate  with  renewed  vigor. 

"  It  is  perfectly  preposterous  for  you  to  think  of  marry 
ing  now,  Mr.  Falconberg,"  she  said,  wiping  a  tear  from  a 
corner  of  her  eye  and  assuming  a  severe  air  of  business. 
"  Ilelga  knows  no  more  of  housekeeping  than  the  man  in 
the  moon,  and  it  will  take  at  least  one  year  if  not  two  to 
make  a  decent  housewife  out  of  her.  Why,  she  hardly 
knows  the  difference  between  a  pie  and  a  pudding.  It 
was  only  the  other  day  she  was  going  to  make  pea  soup, 
and  instead  of  keeping  the  peas  (it  was  hard  Russian 
peas)  in  water  overnight,  she  waited  until  the  water  was 
boiling  and  then  she  stood  with  a  big  ladle  and  stirred 
and  wondered  why  the  peas  wouldn't  sink.  And  after 
two  hours  of  boiling  they  of  course  floated  and  were  as 
hard  as  shot.  And  I  nearly  broke  my  poor  teeth  to  pieces 
in  trying  to  chew  them.  Now  there,  Mr.  Falconberg, 
what  would  you  do  with  a  wife  like  that?  It  would  be  a 
fine  household  you  two  would  keep  together." 

"  Ah,  never  mind,  Mrs.  Raven,"  answered  Einar,  smil 
ing  with  a  happy  unconcern.  "  I  am  quite  ready  to 
assume  the  risk." 

"  Oh  Mr.  Falconberg !  "  resumed  the  mother,  forced 
once  more  into  pleading,  "  if  you  would  only  be  reason 
able  now  and  listen  to  one  who  is  older  and  knows  better 
than  you  do.  She  is  such  a  headstrong  child,  though  it  is 
her  own  mother  that  says  it,  and  I  have  said  to  her  time 
and  again,  (  Child,'  I  have  said,  c  there  isn't  the  man  in 
the  world  that  will  put  up  with  the  sort  of  thing  that  I 


270  FALCONBERG. 

have  to  put  up  with  every  blessed  day  of  my  life.'  And 
you  know,  Mr.  Falconberg, — you  have  seen  enough  of  the 
world  to  know  that  that  isn't  the  sort  of  girl  to  make  a 
comfortable  wife  for  any  man  to  have." 

Einar,  who  was  getting  a  little  nervous  under  this 
steady  bombardment  with  small  missiles,  rose  from  his 
seat,  went  to  the  open  piano  and  began  to  play  an  air 
softly  with  one  hand. 

"  You  know  I  don't  want  to  be  rude  to  you,  Mr.  Falcon- 
berg,"  continued  Mrs.  Haven  in  a  slightly  irritated  voice 
and  abruptly  changing  her  tactics,  "  but  if  you  will  allow 
me  to  say  so,  you  aren't  exactly  the  sort  of  husband  either 
that  I  had  expected  for  my  Helga.  You  must  remember 
she  is  the  daughter  of  a  royal  Norwegian  official  and  her 
blood- 

"Mrs.  Raven,"  interrupted  Einar,  suddenly  turning  his 
full,  luminous  gaze  upon  the  small  shrunken  face  of  his 
interlocutor,  "  I  have  not  thought  of  contradicting  you  on 
that  point.  I  have  not  pleaded  merit.  I  have  only 
pleaded  my  love  for  her  and  her  generous  and  faithful 
devotion  to  me.  And  there  is  something  inexorable  in 
such  a  love,  against  which  your  small  utilitarian  argu 
ments  will  always  remain  powerless.  I  am  sorry  that  we 
have  grieved  you,  but  I  can  only  say  that  as  long  as  your 
daughter  remains  steadfast  in  her  resolve,  I  shall  remain 
steadfast  in  mine." 

Thus  the  interview  ended,  and  Mrs.  Raven,  greatly  im 
pressed  by  the  sudden  peremptoriness  of  .his  manner,  left 
the  room  with  the  consoling  reflection,  that  a  genuine 
Falconberg,  even  though  he  was  no  better  than  he  should 
be,  was  at  all  events  preferable  as  a  son-in-law  to  an  ob 
scure  nobody,  whose  only  distinction  lay  in  the  unvarying 
rectitude  of  his  life.  Her  experience  with  her  own  hus- 


VOX  POPUL1.  271 

band  and  son,  neither  of  whom  had  been  what  you  might 
call  a  pattern  of  virtue,  had  disposed  her  to  be  as  indul 
gent  toward  the  foibles  of  men  as  she  was  rigorous  toward 
those  of  her  own  sex.  Men's  lives  were  so  much  broader 
and  more  complex  and  their  temptations  so  manifold.  It 
was  after  all  quite  excusable  in  this  handsome  young  fel 
low  with  his  blue  blood  and  aristocratic  manners  to  fall 
in  love  with  her  Helga,  while  the  latter's  devotion  for  him 
could  only  be  viewed  in  the  light  of  an  unmitigated  folly. 

As  Einar  returned  home  in  time  for  dinner  he  found 
Korderud  and  the  doctor  seated  together  in  the  study. 
They  both  looked  prodigiously  serious,  but  he  could  dis 
cover  no  trace  of  anger  or  vexation  in  the  features  of  the 
defeated  candidate. 

"  Do  I  interrupt  you  ?  "  he  asked,  pausing  at  the  door, 
with  a  questioning  glance  at  the  doctor. 

"  No,  no,"  protested  both.     "  Come  in." 

Einar  flung  himself  down  on  the  sofa,  and  became  ab 
sorbed  in  the  contemplation  of  his  boots. 

"Finnson,"  began  Norderud  with  gruff  friendliness, 
"  or  rather  Falconberg,  I  should  say,  we  are  both  in  the 
same  boat,  it  seems,  and  it  would  be  folly  for  one  to  try 
to  throw  the  other  overboard.  The  doctor  and  I  have 
been  talking  over  your  case,  and  it  isn't  as  bad  as  it 
looked  to  me  at  first.  If  I  was  rather  rough  on  you,  you 
had  better  not  think  any  more  about  it.  We  shall  go  on 
with  "  The  Citizen  "  as  before,  and  if  you  care  to  stay,  I 
shall  be  glad  to  have  you.  You  will  have  to  harden  your 
skin,  my  boy,  for  you  may  have  to  bear  some  hard  hits,  at 
first.  But  that  will  blow  over,  as  everything  else,  and  if 
we  all  pull  together,  we  shall  get  into  smooth  water  by 
and  by.  What  do  you  say,  old  fellow  ?  Is  it  a  bargain  ? " 

Einar  sat  for  some  minutes  struggling  with  his  emotion. 


272  PALUONBERG. 

He  had  never  fathomed  the  royal  nobility  of  soul  that  hid 
itself  behind  that  rough,  weather-beaten  countenance.  He 
had  never  realized  so  keenly  the  far-reaching  power  of  his 
own  guilt,  had  never  felt  such  utter  tin  worthiness  in  the 
presence  of  any  mortal  man.  With  a  blush  of  shame 
burning  upon  his  cheeks,  he  lifted  his  head  and  saw  that 
faint,  lovable  smile  of  Norderud's  playing  about  the  cor 
ners  of  his  mouth.  Yan  Flint  was  trying  hard  to  look 
unconscious,  as  if  this  business  concerned  him  no  more 
than  the  man  in  the  moon  ;  but  his  transparent  mask 
never  lent  itself  readily  to  such  experiments,  and  a  trium 
phant  smile  (at  first  resolutely  hidden  under  his  mustache) 
gradually  conquered  the  neutral  territory,  until  his  whole 
face  beamed  with  pleasure. 

"  I  will  make  no  speeches  to  you,  Mr.  Nbrdernd,"  said 
Einar,  no  longer  pretending  to  disguise  the  fact  that  he 
was  choking.  "But  here  is  »my  hand.  If  my  friendship 
and  my  gratitude  are  worth  anything,  they  are  yours,  as 
long  as  there  is  any  breath  left  in  me." 

"  Our  friend,  the  doctor,  is  a  great  magician,"  answered 
Norderud,  inclosing  the  proffered  hand  in  his  cordial 
grasp.  "  I  have  ahvays  told  him  that  it  was  a  pity  he 
didn't  go  to  Congress.,  where  his  bewildering  eloquence 
might  tell  on  the  affairs  of  the  nation,  instead  of  getting 
moldy  by  being  buried  in  books  where  it  will  have  to 
wait  for  years  before  it  will  reach  the  light  of  day." 

Einar,  who  fully  understood  the  drift  of  this  allusion, 
seized  Yan  Flint's  hand  and  shook  it  heartily. 

"  You  have  been  too  good  to  me,"  he  murmured  and 
hurried  out  of  the  room. 

"  I  wonder  what  they  mean  to  do  with  themselves  when 
they  get  married,"  resumed  the  farmer  after  a  pause.  "  I 
understand  the  young  lady  is  in  a  great  hurry," 


POPUL1  273 


"  Yes,  it  must  be  admitted,  she  lias  rather 

" 

notions  about  what  she  conceives  to  be  her  duty.  She  is 
determined  to  have  a  taste  of  martyrdom,  and  I  believe 
she  would  be  sadly  disappointed  if  she  should  find  her 
married  life  all  smooth  sailing.  If  she  marries  Falcon- 
berg  now  when  his  stock  is  rather  at  a  heavy  discount, 
she  may  safely  count  on  a  few  severe  snubs  on  his  ac 
count,  and  I  know  she  will  accept  them  with  sublime 
ecstasy.  However,  it  is  hardly  fair  in  me  to  talk  about 
her  in  that  way.  I  never  pretended  to  deny  that  she  is  a 
most  marvelous  woman  —  a  miracle  of  strength,  purity 
and  unselfishness.  I  only  mean  to  say  that  her  ardor  has 
its  ludicrous  side.  I  have  had  some  compunctions  of 
conscience  both  on  your  account  and  my  own,  that  we 
didn't  throw  Falcon  berg  overboard  for  her  gratification. 
That  would  have  mixed  a  larger  share  of  adversity  intc 
their  matrimonial  lot,  which  I  am  afraid  will  now  be  too 
pitifully  prosperous  to  call  forth  all  the  magnificent 
wealth  of  self-abnegation  and  sacrifice  which  she  has  so 
long  been  storing." 

Norderud  sat  for  a  while  musing. 

O 

"  I  have  been  wondering,"  he  said,  "  whether  it  would 
not  do  to  enlarge  the  cottage  and  make  some  timely  re 
pairs  and  then  give  them  the  rent  of  it  ;  or  perhaps  add 
the  amount  to  Falconberg's  salary.  But,"  he  went  on 
with  a  gesture  of  comic  despair,  "  that  vixen  of  an  old 
woman  would  never  in  the  world  consent  to  being  made 
comfortable.  I  have  tried  it  time  and  again  and  she  al 
ways  throws  up  her  hands  and  screams  at  me  as  if  I  had 
come  to  rob  her  or  set  the  house  on  fire.  She  is  very 
much  like  an  imprudent  old  hen  we  used  to  have  who 
persisted  in  roosting  at  midwinter  in  an  apple-tree,  where 
she  would  be  sure  to  freeze  to  death  if  she  was  let  alone. 
12* 


274  FALCONBERG. 

But  if  you  tried  to  take  her  down  and  put  her  into  a  snug 
coop,  she  would  scream  and  kick  and  scratch  as  if  the 
very  devil  was  in  her." 

The  subject  of  this  criticism  would  no  doubt  have  been 
shocked  out  of  her  senses  if  Norderud's  estimate  of  her 
character  had  ever  reached  her  ears.  But  she  felt  too 
securely  lodged  on  her  social  eminence  to  suspect  the  pres 
ence  of  irreverent  reflections  in  the  minds  of  those  whom 
she  honored  with  her  acquaintance.  This  evening,  how 
ever,  when  the  supper  table  was  cleared  and  the  precious 
silver  safely  locked  up  in  its  hiding-place,  her  mind  was  in 
vaded  by  a  strong  temptation  to  pay  an  unannounced  visit 
to  Dr.  Van  Flint,  llelga,  who  accepted  this  proposition  as 
a  sign  that  her  mother  was  relenting,  lost  no  time  in  car 
rying  it  into  effect,  and  thus  it  happened  that  Einar  found 
himself  face  to  face  with  his  future  mother-in-law  in  the 
Icelandic  study,  placidly  discussing  with  her  the  arrange 
ments  about  to  be  made  for  the  approaching  wedding. 
Van  Flint,  who  always  treated  the  old  lady  with  puncti 
lious  gallantry,  was  profuse  in  his  apologies  for  the  all- 
pervading  odor  of  tobacco,  the  confusion  of  books  and 
newspapers  and  in  fact  every  appointment  about  his  house 
that  might  be  displeasing  to  the  refined  tastes  of  a  lady  of 
distinction.  He  thereupon  beguiled  Helga  into  a  debate 
on  the  disadvantages  of  universal  suffrage,  choosing  his 
arguments  chiefly  from  the  events  of  the  campaign  which 
had  just  closed  with  such  a  disastrous  result. 

While  the  doctor  was  yielding  to  the  fascination  of  lis 
tening  to  Helga's  voice,  it  suddenly  occurred  to  him  that 
he  was  neglecting  his  duties  as  host.  The  twilight  was 
deepening  and  her  fair  face  was  growing  indistinct.  He 
rang  for  the  servant,  excused  himself  and  went  out  to  close 
the  shutters.  As  he  opened  the  door  a  confused  murmur 


VOX  POPULL  275 

of  voices  mingled  with  a  discordant  noise  of  metallic  in 
struments  reached  him  from  without.  The  tumult  was 
coming  nearer  and  loud  angry  voices  were  now  distinctly 
heard.  He  stood  for  a  moment  peering  through  the  dusk  ; 
a  dark  mass  stretching  from  the  garden  gate  down  the 
length  of  the  street  was  pushing  up  toward  the  house. 
A  tremendous  noise  of  tin  pans,  kettles  and  fish-horns 
suddenly  shook  the  air  followed  by  a  hideous  chorus  of 
howls  and  groans.  Van  Flint  slammed  the  blinds  together, 
sprang  in  through  the  door  and  turned  the  key.  Mrs. 
Haven  rushed  toward  him  white  with  terror. 

"  Merciful  God  !  "  she  gasped,  "  what  is  it  ?  Oh,  help 
us,  Doctor  !  Protect  us  !  " 

"  Be  quiet,  my  dear  madam,"  implored  the  doctor, 
though  his  voice  had  a  tremor  in  it  which  was  far  from 
re-assuring.  "  Be  kind  enough  to  follow  me  upstairs  into 
my  aunt's  bedroom.  She  is  down  at  Norderud's  to-night, 
I  regret  to  say.  Miss  Helga,  come.  There  is  no  time  to 
be  lost." 

The  host  supported  Mrs.  Raven's  trembling  form,  con 
ducting  her  up  the  winding  stairs  and  Einar  followed 
^quietly  with  Helga. 

"  I  am  sorry  on  your  account,  Doctor,"  he  said,  "  that 
this  should  happen.  I  am  afraid  they  will  ruin  your  gar 
den." 

"  My  garden  ! "  cried  the  doctor,  in  a  tone  half  way  be 
tween  irritation  and  amazement.  "  My  dear  boy,  it  is  not 
me  they  are  after.  It  is  you.  I  knew  this  abnormal 
quiet  must  hide  some  nefarious  scheme.  But  it  is  not  too 
late  yet.  You  may  easily  get  out  without  being  seen  on 
the  back  side  of  the  house,  and  then  there  is  only  a  fe\v 
rods  to  the  woods." 

"  And  you  think  I  would  leave  you  here  alone  with  the 


276  FALCONBERG. 

ladies  1     No,  sir ;  if  it  is  me  they  are  after,  they  shall  find 
me." 

The  shouting  and  blowing  of  kettles  and  horns  were 
now  heard  right  under  the  windows,  and  calls  for  "  Finn- 
son  "  became  audible  above  the  confused  intermingling 
of  sounds. 

u  There  are  several  hundred  of  them,"  whispered  Van 
Flint,  peering  through  the  shutters.  "Let  me  go  out  on 
the  balcony  and  speak  to  them." 

"  Not  while  I  am  alive,"  cried  Einar,  seizing  his  friend 
by  the  shoulders  and  forcibly  detaining  him.  "  I  am  not 
afraid  of " 

A  stone,  hurled  from  below,  dashed  against  the  blind, 
and  the  glass  of  the  window,  splintered  by  the  shock,  fell 
in  jingling  fragments  on  the  floor.  Mrs.  Haven  gave  a 
frightened  scream  and  buried  her  face  in  the  pillows  of 
the  bed  where  she  was  sitting.  In  the  twinkling  of 
an  eye  Einar  had  raised  the  window,  torn  the  shut 
ter  open  and  rushed  out  on  the  balcony.  Ilelga,  to 
whom  this  movement  was  unexpected,  was  about  to  fol 
low,  but  Van  Flint  caught  her  in  his  arms  and  held  her 
back. 

"  Oh  that  this  misery  should  come  upon  us ! "  moaned 
Mrs.  Haven. 

"  Fellow-citizens,"  Einar  was  heard  shouting,  and  the 
noise  without  momentarily  subsided. 

"  You  lost  us  the  election   by  your  d d  fooling," 

cried  a  rough  voice  in  Norwegian. 

"  Quiet !  "  roared  another.     "  Let  him  speak." 

"  Fellow-citizens,"  began  Einar  again,  and  his  clear, 
strong  tenor  rose  distinctly  above  the  tumult  below. 
"  Listen  to  me  for  a  moment.  I  know  you  are  angry  with 
me,  and  you  have  a  right  to  be." 


VOX  POPUL1.  277 

"Well  said,  young  chap!"  some  one  interrupted  again 
in  Norwegian.  "  He  isn't  a  sneak,  anyway." 

u  I  should  like  to  tell  you  the  history  of  my  life  that 
you  may  yourselves  judge  of  the  wrong  I  have  done. 
You  have  already  heard  one  side.  Now  it  is  only  fair 
that  you  should  hear  the  other.  My  father,  Bishop  Fal 
con  berg,  was  a  stern  man  who  valued  his  fair  name  above 
all  other  things.  I  was  young,  and  like  many  another 
young  man  I  made  debt.  A  Jew  bought  up  all  claims 
upon  me  and  while  my  father  was  away,  gave  me  the 
choice  between  imprisonment  (for  you  know  in  Norway 
people  may  be  imprisoned  for  debt)  and  immediate  pay 
ment.  I  called  upon  all  my  friends  to  advance  me  the 
money,  but  they  all  failed  me.  Then  in  my  desperation 
to  avoid  disgrace  I  did  what  I  have  since  so  deeply  re 
gretted.  I  wrote  my  father's  name  on  a  check  and  pro 
cured  the  money  I  needed  at  the  bank.  My  father  would 
himself  have  paid  my  debts  rather  than  suffer  his  name 
to  be  disgraced.  Mind  you,  I  do  not  excuse  what  I  did. 
I  only  wish  you  to  know  exactly  what  happened.  Then 
after  long  wanderings  I  came  here.  I  longed  for  a  quiet 
life  and  useful  occupation.  I  yearned  to  rebuild  my  fail- 
name.  If  I  had  come  and  said  to  you :  4 1  am  a  forger 
from  Norway.  Please  trust  me  and  give  me  employ 
ment,'  who  wrould  have  offered  me  his  hand  for  a  wel 
come,  who  would  have  dared  to  repose  confidence  in 
me?" 

"  Hear,  hear !  he  is  right,"  cried  a  voice  with  a  friend 
lier  intonation.  "  Three  cheers  for  Falconberg !  " 

The  call  was  but  feebly  responded  to,  and  Einar  con 
tinued  : 

"  The  way  I  chose  was,  perhaps,  not  the  right  way,  and 
I  regret  now,  on  Mr.  Norderud'S  account  and  for  your 


278  FALGONBERO. 

sakes,  that  I  preferred  concealment  to  an  open  avowal  of 
my  past.  My  life  among  you  during  these  years  has  been 
a  life  of  toil,  and  if  I  am  deprived  of  the  labor  in  the 
pursuit  of  which  happiness  lias,  as  it  were,  overtaken 
me  unawares,  I  shall  have  nothing  left  worthy  of  a 
thought.  If  you  cherish  hostile  intentions  against  me, 
then,  indulge  them  if  you  see  fit.  Here  I  stand  before 
you.  I  shall  not  try  to  escape.  Away  from  here,  with  a 
long  and  dreary  prospect  of  a  roaming  and  futile  exis 
tence — ah  !•  I  would  rather  die  here,  and  die  by  your 
hands.  I  did  ruin  the  election  for  you ;  take  your  re 
venge,  if  you  like.  And  now  I  have  told  you  all  without 
restraint,  not  because  I  cared  to  exculpate  myself,  but 
because  I  felt  the  need  of  speaking.  I  have  been  silent 
too  long." 

Einar  had  spoken  under  an  impulse  too  strong  to  be  re 
pressed  by  any  reflection  regarding  the  nature  of  his  audi 
ence.  It  had  not  occurred  to  him  that  that  boisterous 
crowd,  as  it  stood  there  before  him,  unindividualized,  a 
mere  dark,  undulating  mass  of  humanity,  possibly  intent 
upon  mischief,  was  hardly  the  proper  tribunal  to  appeal 
to  for  a  vindication  of  his  honor.  To  him,  it  somehow 
represented  the  large,  half-abstract  public  which  he  was 
conscious  of  having  wronged,  and  in  spite  of  what  he  had 
said  (and  as  he  himself  believed  with  perfect  sincerity), 
now  that  he  had  regained  his  hold  upon  life,  the  need  to 
vindicate  himself  had  grown  strong  within  him.  More 
over,  a  Norwegian  mob,  even  at  the  worst,  is  never  a  for 
midable  affair ;  and  the  present  one  was  really  quite  ac 
cidental  in  its  origin.  A  dozen  young  fellows,  who  were 
rather  envious  of  his  good  luck  in  winning,  while  on  the 
brink  of  disgrace,  the  fairest  maiden  in  the  town,  had  as 
sembled  in  the  square  with  the  harmless  purpose  of  giving 


VOX  POPULI.  279 

him  a  cat-concert.  The  professional  loafers,  who  were 
always  abundant  at  that  time  of  the  day  and  eager  for 
any  kind  of  sport,  had  made  common  cause  with  them, 
and  as  the  company  proceeded  up  Main  and  Elm  streets 
with  jingling  of  bells,  blowing  of  horns  and  clanking  of 
pans  and  kettles,  it  found  its  size  every  moment  increas 
ing,  like  a  snow-ball  that  grows  as  it  rolls.  I  believe 
the  prevalent  emotion  in  the  crowd  at  the  time  when 
Einar  had  finished  speaking  was  surprise  at  the  dignity 
with  which  they  had  been  treated,  and  having  suddenly 
become  impressed  with  a  sense  of  their  own  respecta 
bility,  their  original  mission  was  temporarily  lost  sight  of, 
and  the  American  part  of  their  nature  asserted  itself  in 
loud  demands  for  more  speeches.  The  doctor  was  vocifer 
ously  called  for,  and  at  last  was  forced  to  respond.  In  a 
very  neat  and  well-turned  little  speech,  he  supplied  much 
that  Einar  had  left  unsaid,  and  at  the  outset  put  the  as 
sembly  in  good  humor  by  addressing  it  as  "  My  invisible 
friends,"  and  threatening  to  commence  a  suit  against  the 
youth  of  Hardanger  in  general  for  the  damage  done  to 
his  flower-beds.  When  his  eloquence  had  at  last  exhaust 
ed  itself,  the  crowd  made  its  retreat  in  quite  an  orderly 
manner,  giving  from  the  street,  as  a  sort  of  after-thought, 
three  cheers  for  the  editor,  and  for  the  doctor  three  times 
three. 

An  hour  later,  when  Mrs.  Raven  had  recovered  from 
the  effects  of  the  shock,  the  doctor  bade  his  guests  good 
night,  and  Einar  escorted  them  home. 

Ilelga,  although  she  had  preserved  an  outward  calm, 
had  taken  an  intense  part  in  the  occurrences  of  the  night, 
and  when  her  mother  had  entered  the  house  she  still  lin 
gered  with  her  lover  on  the  piazza,  being  conscious  of  that 
after-quiver  of  excitement  which  somehow  makes  one  loth 


280  FALCONBERG. 

to  part  without  having  gathered  (as  by  &  finale  in  music) 
all  the  tumultuous  emotions  into  a  closing  harmony.  As 
she  was  about  to  speak,  footsteps  were  heard  approaching, 
and  presently  the  tall,  clumsy  shape  of  Amund  Norderud 
was  seen  outlined  against  the  sky.  lie  paused  at  the  gate, 
struck  a  match  on  the  sole  of  his  boot,  and  looked  at  his 
watch.  Under  the  strong  illumination,  his  square  Norse 
face,  with  its  pathetic  dullness,  started  suddenly  out  of  the 
dusk  which  hovered  like  a  misty  aureola  about  it. 

Ilelga,  without  knowing  why,  clung  more  closely  to 
Einar's  side. 

After  a  brief  deliberation,  Amund  opened  the  gate,  and 
advanced  to  where  the  lovers  sat  hidden  in  the  shadow  of 
the  dead  Virginia  creepers,  the  skeletons  of  which  were 
still  clambering  over  the  pillars  of  the  porch. 

"  Good  evening,  Amund,"  came  the  girl's  voice  out  of 
the  dusk. 

Amund  started  back  a  couple  of  steps,  but  collected 
himself  and  advanced  once  more. 

"  I  only  came — to  congratulate  you,"  he  said  (faltering 
a  little),  in  his  slow,  heavy  bass.  "  I  called  once  before, 
but  you  were  not  at  home." 

"  Thank  you,  Amund,"  she  answered,  cordially,  and 
with  her  usual  impulsiveness,  stretching  out  both  her  hands 
toward  him. 

"  I  have  known  that  this  was  coming — for  a  good  while," 
he  said,  parenthetically,  with  a  glance  at  Einar,  who  had 
also  risen  to  offer  his  hand. 

"  You  have  been  more  sagacious  than  I,  then,"  responded 
the  latter.  "  I  should  have  been  a  happier  man  than  I 
have  been  if  I  had  had  any  premonition  of  what  was  in 
store  for  me.  I  suppose  other  folks  see  those  things  bet 
ter  than  one's  self." 


VOX  POPULI.  281 

"  Very  likely." 

Ilelga  blushed  in  the  dark,  but  said  nothing. 

"  If  I  had  seen  you  when  I  called  first,"  resumed 
Amund,  after  a  pause,  "  you  wouldn't  have  had  any  of 
those  disturbances  you  have  had  over  at  the  doctor's." 

"  I  am  much  obliged  on  Ilelga's  account,  for  your  kind 
intentions,"  Einar  answered,  with  a  tinge  of  that  patron 
age  in  his  voice  which  a  happy  lover,  however  deep  his 
pity  may  be,  cannot  help  feeling  for  an  unsuccessful  rival. 

"  I  suppose  I  mustn't  call  you  Ilelga  any  more,  now  that 
you  are  engaged." 

The  words  were  thrown  out  at  random  into  the  air,  but 
were  evidently  meant  for  Ilelga. 

"  Oh  yes,  indeed,  Amund,"  she  responded  warmly.  "  We 
are  old  friends,  you  know,  and  shall  always  remain  so." 

Einar,  I  regret  to  say,  was  not  quite  generous  enough 
to  feel  unalloyed  pleasure  at  this  reply,  but  he  knew  his 
jealousy  to  be  absurd,  and  determined  to  conquer  it. 

The  gate  creaked  on  its  rusty  hinges,  and  Amund's 
heavy  footsteps  died  away  into  the  night. 

"Tell  me  one  thing,  Einar,"  began  Ilelga,  nestling  con 
fidingly  against  him.  "  I  know  it  is  foolish  to  ask,  but  you 
will  allow  me  to  be  foolish  for  once.  Have  you  ever  loved 
any  woman  before  you  loved  me  ?  " 

"  Never,"  he  replied,  with  warm  emphasis.  "  How 
could  I,  Helga «  " 

"  I  don't  know,  dear.  But  I  thought  men  usually  did — 
love  several  times.  It  was  a  mere  silly  vow  I  once  made 
that  I  would  never  marry  a  man  to  whom  I  could  not  be 
the  first  and  the  last.  It  is  such  a  dear  thought  to  a  woman, 
you  know,  that  the  man  she  loves  is  as  single-minded — as 
free  from  blighting  experiences — as  she  is  herself.  I  sup 
pose  it  is  hardly  any  merit  in  a  woman  like  me,  who  has 


282  FALCONBERO. 

never  been  much  sought  by  men.  A  life  like  mine,  I  am 
afraid,  is  a  fertile  soil  for  impracticable  ideals  But,"  she 
added,  with  sudden  ardor,  "I  cling  to  them-still,  and  it 
makes  me  so  happy  to  think  that  they  are,  after  all,  capa 
ble  of  realization." 

"  Ah,  dearest,"  he  murmured,  sadly, "  do  not  shame  me, 
now  when  you  know  what  1  am,  and — what  I  have  been." 

"  And  why,"  she  asked,  with  as  near  an  approach  to 
archness  as  a  woman  of  her  type  is  capable  of,  "  do  you 
not  ask  me  whether  I  ever  loved  any  one  before  I  met 
you?" 

u  Because  I  know  that  you  never  did." 

"  It  is  true,"  she  answered,  groping  in  the  dark  for  his 
hand,  till  it  lay  within  her  own.  "  I  have  had  my  foolish 
school-girl  admirations,  but  I  never  loved  any  one  but 
you." 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

CONCLUSION. 

THREE  years  have  passed  over  Hardanger, — slow  and 
uneventful,  as  the  years  are  apt  to  be  in  a  Western  com 
munity  which  has  more  than  half  emerged  from  barbarism, 
and  is  well  advanced  toward  what  in  the  West  is  called 
civilization.  Outwardly  the  years  have  brought  very  few 
changes,  and  the  town  is  yet  very  much  what  it  was  before, 
— a  planless,  cuttle-fish -like  accumulation  of  brick  and 
wooden  houses,  the  ramifications  of  which  now  hold  the 
whole  hill-side,  from  the  forest  to  the  lake,  in  a  somewhat 
loose  and  listless  embrace.  Like  every  Western  town 
with  metropolitan  ambitions,  Hardanger  continues  to 
draw  large  drafts  on  the  future,  and  its  hopefulness  finds 
expression  in  a  certain  speculative  ardor  in  business  cir 
cles,  and  in  an  exorbitant  over- valuation  of  the  real  estate 
in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  the  town. 

"  The  Citizen,"  which  has  been  laboring  faithfully  for 
the  quelling  of  the  violent  partisanships  excited  by  the 
war,  is  enjoying  a  moderate  prosperity,  and  has  recently 
become  a  daily.  Its  editor,  whose  gentle,  lovable  nature, 
no  less  than  his  sagacity  and  rhetorical  brilliancy,  has 
gained  him  a  wide  popularity  in  social  circles,  still  man 
ages  to  wield  a  very  weighty  influence  in  public  affairs, 
although  he  has  hitherto  stood  rigidly  aloof  from  all  de 
grading  political  affiliations.  Every  one  is  ready  to  admit 


284  FALCONBERG. 

that  it  is  chiefly  owing  to  his  admirable  conduct  in  the 
late  campaign,  that  Norderud  has  just  succeeded  in  ob 
literating  the  memory  of  his  defeat,  and  has  been  returned 
to  the  State  senate  by  a  very  respectable  majority.  No 
one  dares  breathe  a  suspicion  against  Einar  Falconberg's 
fair  name  now. 

His  old  enemy,  "  The  Banner,"  has  gone  where  all  good 
Americans  go — to  Paris,  where  Mr.  George  Washington 
Bingham  has  established  some  new  agency,  and,  I  believe, 
writes  occasional  correspondences  to  leading  Democratic 
journals.  A  less  pugnacious  successor,  called  "The 
Democratic  Thunderclap,"  occupies  the  old  offices  of 
"  The  Banner,"  on  the  further  side  of  the  square. 

As  for  "  The  Citizen,"  I  would  not,  of  course,  assert 
that  it  gives  universal  satisfaction.  It  would  be  worth 
very  little  if  it  did.  There  are,  even  among  the  Norwe 
gians,  certain  constitutional  pessimists  who  look  back  in 
mournful  retrospect  to  its  early  days,  and  declare  with  a 
sigh  that  "  it  is  not  what  it  used  to  be."  But  it  is  worthy 
of  notice  that  these  gentlemen  are  the  very  ones  who,  in 
those  days,  most  vigorously  espoused  the  pastors  cause, 
and,  in  spite  of  their  incapacity  for  sarcasm,  attempted  to 
be  humorous  at  Einar's  and  Norderud's  expense. 

It  was  the  day  after  the  election.  In  the  parlor  of 
what  was  formerly  the  Raven  cottage,  Einar  and  his  wife 
were  sitting.  It  was  the  after-supper  hour — the  delicious 
dulce  far  niente  hour  of  the  day.  The  parlor,  although 
Btill  glorying  in  some  quaint  Norwegian  features,  was  no 
longer  what  it  was  of  old.  Some  large  bay-windows  pro 
jected  on  the  south  and  west  sides  (her  oriels,  as  Mrs.  Fal 
con  berg  is  fond  of  calling  them),  breaking  somewhat  the 
rigid  monotony  of  outline  ;  an  open  fire-place  had  been 
substituted  for  the  old  Norse  five-storied  monster ;  the 


CONCLUSION.  285 

territory  on  the  wall  formerly  occupied  by  portraits  of 
the  royal  family  had,  to  the  great  grief  of  Mrs.  Raven's 
loyal  heart,  been  invaded  by  Italian  madonnas,  chubby- 
faced  angels,  and  other  line  van  gelical  creatures.  Helga, 
who  is  now  the  mother  of  a  boy  two  years  old, — the  exact 
counterpart,  as  she  frequently  insists,  of  one  of  Correggio's 
cherubs,  minus  the  bassoon, — has  changed  but  little  since 
the  days  of  her  girlhood.  Her  fair  face  has  still  the  same 
maidenly  freshness  as  of  old,  with  perhaps  that  slight 
softening  of  expression  and  contour  which  the  superadded 
dignity  of  happy  motherhood  gives  even  to  the  plainest 
woman.  The  education  of  her  son  is  at  present  her 
enthusiasm, — the  all-absorbing  topic  of  interest  and  con 
versation.  Her  eagerness  to  perfect  herself  in  this  diffi 
cult  art  had  led  her  to  the  study  of  Froebel,  Pestalozzi, 
and  other  educational  philosophers,  and  she  bears  with 
the  patience  of  superior  knowledge,  the  banter  of  her 
husband,  who  pretends  that  he  is  unable  to  understand 
what  relation  these  ponderous  tomes  can  have  to  that  tiny 
fragment  of  humanity,  whose  attention  seems  to  be  chiefly 
divided  between  feeding  and  sleeping.  But  Helga  thinks 
she  can  well  afford  to  be  forbearing,  because  she  is  pro 
foundly  convinced  that  the  right  is  on  her  side.  She  dis 
cusses  with  great  gravity  the  future  career  of  the  marvel 
ous  boy,  quite  unconscious  that  her  zeal  has  any  humorous 
side  to  it.  And  Einar,  if  he  were  to  be  candid,  would 
have  to  admit  that,  in  spite  of  his  occasional  ridicule,  he 
is  not  without  sympathy  with  her  folly.  In  fact,  he  is 
secretly  of  the  opinion  (and  I  believe  he  has  confessed  it 
to  his  friend  the  doctor),  that  the  fantastic  streaks  in  his 
wife's  nature  and  the  ardor  she  expends  in  doing  little 
things  make  her  tenfold  more  lovable  in  his  sight,  and, 
moreover,  touches  with  a  poetic  flush  the  many  humdrum 


286  FALUONBERG. 

cares  which  marriage  inevitably  brings.  The  most  seri 
ous  difficulty  they  ever  had  was  occasioned  by  her  enthu 
siasm  for  phonetic  spelling,  which  his  philological  learn 
ing  led  him  to  oppose  with  a  tinge  of  asperity.  On  that 
question,  however,  she  at  length  accepted  his  authority, 
or  yielded  to  argument.  Her  present  rapturous  devotion 
to  the  kindergarten  system  he  looks  upon  as  comparatively 
harmless,  and  allows  her  to  experiment  with  the  babies 
of  the  neighborhood  to  her  heart's  content. 

If  Mrs.  Haven's  opinion  is  to  be  relied  on,  Helga  is  as 
yet  hardly  an  expert  in  housekeeping.  She  is  too  much  in 
clined  to  take  a  theoretic  view  of  what  she  dignifies  with  the 
title  of  "  the  culinary  science,"  and  although  her  Graham 

t/  O 

gems  and  roast  beef  are  above  criticism,  her  more  ambi 
tious  efforts  often  come  dangerously  near  being  down 
right  failures.  In  her  boldly  experimental  dishes  she  has, 
however,  an  unerring  test  by  which  she  may  judge 
whether  they  are  successful  or  not.  If  Einar  displays  an 
abnormal  appetite,  and  with  a  suspiciously  innocent  face 
demands  a  second  plateful,  she  knows  at  once  that  some 
thing  is  wrong.  And  in  the  little  tete-d-tete  in  the  library 
which  invariably  follows,  he  ignominiously  confesses  his 
duplicity,  and  is,  in  return,  initiated  into  the  mystery  of 
the  culinary  process  ;  and  even  if,  in  spite  of  this  explana 
tion,  the  dish  remains  a  failure,  he  generously  allows  the 
undeniable  beauty  of  the  principle  to  atone  for  the  mean 
ness  of  the  result. 

Helga  has  often  admitted  to  her  husband  that  the  hap 
piness  she  has  found  in  her  marriage  with  him  differed 
widely  in  kind,  though  not  in  degree,  from  what  she  pic 
tured  to  herself  in  the  ardor  of  her  girlish  inexperience. 
And  on  this  November  afternoon,  when  the  deputation  of 
citizens  who  had  come  to  thank  him  for  his  independent 


CONCLUSION.  287 

attitude  in  the  campaign  had  departed,  she  had  seated 
herself  on  a  low  stool  at  his  side,  trifling  with  his  watch- 
chain,  as  her  habit  was  whenever  she  meant  to  coax  him 
into  compromising  confessions. 

"  Einar,"  she  said,  lifting  Jaer  eyes,  still  radiant  with 
triumph,  to  his,  "  do  you  remember  my  saying  to  you,  two 
years  ago,  that  if  you  had  been  instrumental  in  Mr.  Nor- 
derud's  defeat,  you  were  also  strong  enough  to  help  him 
to  a  victory,  which  would  be  so  much  the  sweeter  for  the 
taste  he  had  had  of  defeat  ? " 

"  No,  really,  dear,"  he  answered,  with  an  amused  ex 
pression.  "  I  don't  remember  that  you  ever  told  me  so." 

u  If  I  didn't,  I  at  least  meant  to  do  it,"  she  responded 
energetically ;  "  I  am  sure,  I  anticipated  in  my  thought  all 
that  has  happened  to-day." 

Helga,  like  many  a  woman  whose  inner  life  moves  with 
exceptional  intensity,  was  frequently  subject  to  illusions 
of  this  land,  believing  that  she  had  heard  or  said  what, 
rising  in  her  own  mind,  had  impressed  itself  vividly  upon 
her  thought. 

"I  suppose  I  ought  not  to  object  to  your  magnifying 
my  share  in  the  victory,  darling,"  he  said,  stooping  over 
her  and  gazing  at  her  with  eyes  full  of  affectionate  pride. 
"  But  your  own  share  in  it  is  greater  than  mine." 

"  My  share  ?    I  don't  understand." 

"Tery  likely.     I  mean  that  a  great  love  is  strong  to 


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